Today was a pretty epic day. Lots of stuff happened at the studio and it was very exciting. As soon as I arrived Moto and Takao were ready to start a fire. They showed me that pots with this matt red color, are to be put in this fire we make at 1000 degrees (Celsius). Basically they sit in there for about 20 min and the charcoal leaves a design on the side. We did this for three hours. Seven different batches of pots. The process is tiring. Pots in, coals in, lets sit, pots out, dip them in water, lay them flat, repeat. The crazy thing is, that this process has no actual purpose. It is not a bisque or a glaze load, its just for decorative design. Even with 20min in the fire, some pots manage to not get the correct color. Out of 10 pots, this will happen to about 3 or 4 of them. So in they have to go again, until they have this dark black color on the side. Of course it was raining while we were doing this, but the fire was nice and warm. To keep the coals hot you have to keep a constant source of airflow. We used this ancient fan to keep the coals hot, and also something that looked like a leaf blower. Moto showed me how to take the pieces out of the fire, with these massive metal tongs (they get hot!!). When you have them in the tongs you have to dip them in cold water and they steam like crazy. We finished at 12:30 and I was starving. Another typical delicious Japanese lunch was served :) After lunch we went back into the studio and i did Rokuro, pottery wheel. Lets just say the way they do things here in Japan is so different from the GH process. Everyone was surprised that I put the wheel in forward position, apparently they usually go in reverse. They dont use bats, or sponges, or lots of water. They basically take a huge clump of clay, and create a kind of clay bottom on top of which they throw the actual pot. Oh, major difference number one: They sit cross legged, with the wheel in a hole. I had some major issues with my legs not folding so i ended up sticking my legs in with the wheel. Only issue was, that unlike gh, there are no plastic trays around the edges to hold the clay and water in. Thus, it got all over me. I made four pots on the wheel and then it was time for our break. Since I had some time to kill (I was not going to walk home covered in clay) i just messed around with some clay, making little things. Needless to say, today was hard. Im actually very tired right now and am happy i have the weekend off! Phew.
