For the Table... Round Erosion Vase

Round Erosion Vase
11in.H x 5in.W
The pot becomes half buried in ash during firing
creating a crusty surface on the hot side
and a multi-colored surface on the cooler side
$250

bright sunrise

yesterday morning the sunrise created a pink/orange band
extending 360 degrees around the property...
a wide line of color enclosing the emerging blue sky above it...
for a brief few minutes even the snow seemed   pink...

The Firing

For Mr. David Lipman, Esq.  and his insistence
that I would have been better off working in a 7/11 for the last 40 years...




THE FIRING
         For Les Blakebrough and the memory of John Chappell


Bitter blue fingers
Winter nineteen sixty-three A.D.
showa thirty eight
Over a low pine covered splay of hills in Shiga
West-Southwest of the outlet of Lake Biwa
Domura village, set on sandy fans of the sweep
and turn of a river
Draining the rotten-granite hills up Shigaraki

On a nineteen-fifty-seven Honda cycle model C
Rode with some Yamanashi wine "St. Neige"
Into the farmyard and the bellowing kiln
Les & John
In ragged shirts and pants, dried slip
Stuck to with pine needle pitch
Through peephole white blast glow
No saggers tilting yet and seegers bending
Neatly in a row--
Even their beards caked up with mud and soot
Firing for fourteen hours. How does she go.
Porcelain & Stoneware: cheese dish. Twenty cups.
Tokuri. Vases. Black chawan.
Crosslegged rest on the dirt,
eye cocked to smoke--

The hands you layed on clay
Kickwheeled, curling,
creamed to the lip of nothing
and coaxt to a white dancing heat that day
Will linger centuries in these towns and loams
And speak to men or beasts
When Japanese and English
are dead tongues.

                         Gary Snyder
                         from " The Back Country"

           

gallery trail

the gallery has remained closed this winter for the first time since it opened...
the unpacking and repacking has become a little too much lately
the body and soul need some recovery time...
through the years the "winter" customers were nearly non existent anyway
with sales even less of an occurrence
so this is an economical move to protect my body and etc...
meanwhile I'll be in the studio, getting ready for the spring and a new season of customers...
the pots for the March shows are already packed and need only to be put back in the truck
we'll see if this makes sense as the time passes...
I will miss seeing it all set up ... it's a reminder that I make fine work and am competent...
or so I tell myself... it is easy to doubt that...  I do, everyday it seems...

after the last year of "lawyers, guns and money"...

I  want some ease back...
whatever the outcome, from wherever it comes...
I just want some ease to return...
so that I might remember how to live again...

afternoon visitor

through the looking glass,
Wyatt and I watched
as he enjoyed,
catching an afternoon meal...

Old Church

Some images of my space in Demarest at old church
much too crowded with too many pots
seems the way there though,
I just can't help it
with so many pots around...
this is my first real transfer from my old macbook pro's hard-drive
I think I'm learning how to access the old data a little at a time
a lot of trial and error, but progress continues...
for all waiting for pictures of pots,
they're coming soon!
though mindbogglingly frustrating, technology can be magical too!
out of the ashes come cinders still glowing from the past...

changes

Hi everyone...
my mac book died upon my return from Demarest
I've been disconnected since, but now have a new IMac...
nothing is as easy as I might expect it to be with the transition
it will take some time and probably a lot of frustration,
but the process is under way...
once I can work this out, retrieving my old disk is next...
all those many photos and documents...
wish me luck... new images soon...

oval lava bowl w/ coral interior

pieces being loaded for the old church show...
www.oldchurchpottery show.org
Sold

happy thanksgiving!

have a great holiday everyone...
if you're traveling, stay safe, remain well
and arrive with a warm heart!

Tray w/ Blue Arches

www.oldchurchpotteryshow.org preview
Wall Tray with Blue Arches
$950

misty glaze

today's foggy and misty morning reminded me of this pot from the shino experiments...
many layers of mist and glaze... lots of density to look through...
and wonderful drips!
www.oldchurchpotteryshow.org coming soon!