TeaChat

Shino mizusashi. Kindly click image for full view...

R,
Nice glaze finish...I particularly appreciate the warmness of the shino on the lid. I'm curious, was the base glaze matte?

Nice work all around,
Michael

R,
Nice glaze finish...I particularly appreciate the warmness of the shino on the lid. I'm curious, was the base glaze matte?

Nice work all around,
Michael

Thanks for the post Michael and the kind compliments.

I think that you mentioned something about "glazing against the grain" and soaking the kiln to "heal" the pitting caused by the base glaze as it out gasses in an earlier post, however my approach is a bit different. As I mentioned on a post on your thread, "shino" in the west comes in many different configurations, and as such I thought why not work with the differences in chemistry, accepting the characteristics of the glaze, to acheive the desired effect thus eliminating the outgas issue. This piece came from a series of work investigating coloring the base shino, as well as the use of stains and slips. I met Yamada Kazu a number of years ago, and it was after conversations with him that my interest piqued. His chawan below.....


Cheers,
R

I see a beauty in your shape : it looks very " natural", nature-like ( a marrow ? ) ,( courge in french ) but we can see that your way of making poceed from a long time of doing and you have this liberty in the movement , that is so great !
Here in that pieces the shino has a metaliic ( bronze) effect at some places that is also very intersting.
Ginkgo

I see a beauty in your shape : it looks very " natural", nature-like ( a marrow ? ) ,( courge in french ) but we can see that your way of making poceed from a long time of doing and you have this liberty in the movement , that is so great !
Here in that pieces the shino has a metaliic ( bronze) effect at some places that is also very intersting.
Ginkgo

Thank you for your kind and generous comments Ginkgo..... I always appreciate your interest in my work!

Best wishes,
R

While searching for new/recycled building materials at Habitat for Humanity a few months back I had a conversation with a gentleman regarding our respective building projects and when I told him that I was trying to build a 1200sf house for 80K......... he just laughed. My thought was to try to build as green as possible on a very tight budget and while I wasn't really all that keen on the white vinyl windows I thought that perhaps I might be able to paint them in the future while living with them as they are now. At any rate, it came in slightly over the 80K figure and I finally finished up the engawa (still have to paint the Hardi Panel) across the front on Sunday and hung out the hyoutan which I brought back from Japan which I found on one of my walks in a nearby field. We still have landscaping to do with more of an enclosed asian style garden planned for the front which will give us more privacy as well as creating somewhat of a crushed rock courtyard for me to work in. Working on kilns as well with friend Tim over yesterday with his Mig set up to help out with the welding....

Kindly please stop by my Etsy page, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=8068738 for previewing of a few new pieces that I posted.

Many thanks,
R

Robert,
Couldn't resist the oribe yunomi!
Looking forward to my first piece from you.
Thanks.

Oh, nice one, Woozler! I liked that one too.

Robert,
Couldn't resist the oribe yunomi!
Looking forward to my first piece from you.
Thanks.

Many many thanks to you Woozl.... your support is most appreciated!

Best wishes,
R

Awesome thread Robert! Your work is amazing!

I really appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge of tea, teawares, and Japanese culture here on teachat. Also, thanks so much for the etsy shop!

As you know, I have a little collection of your works that has continued to grow over the past year. All the pieces are amazing and I've gotten good use out of all, but one sees far less use than the rest (my fault). The shino guinomi pictured below doesn't get used very often because it's very porous and drinks as much sake as I do. I know there are ways to kinda seal it up a bit, but I've been putting it off as I'm nervous that I'll mess it up. I simply don't have any experience doing this. Could you recommend to me a method for sealing this up a bit? I've read about a number of ways that different people have used for porous clays, but I think I'd rather take your direct advice as I really value your opinion and experience.



love the koudai on this one!

Hope you don't mind me asking this here. I think your advice about this will only help make the teachat community a better one.

cheers,

Adam

I meant to congratulate you on the within-budget studio...so Congrats on the studio Rob!

You guys have such a cool spot, and what a view!

I saw the photo of your daughter (?, assuming here) before the edit and she is such a cutie! Earlier tonight I was organizing photos on an external HD and saw the one of my son below. I just had to post after seeing your cowgirl.



One look into those steely eyes and I surrendered. Ha!
My boy was five here and the photo was taken at a friends house in Estes Park, CO back in 2005. He's as tough as he looks. He climbed a fourteener during this trip to Colorado at age five!

I look quite "challenged" in that photo, so here's a better one of 2005 me (although my boy's lookin goofy).



Alright, I know this isn't the Smells_Familiar thread so I won't take it any further off topic. I love your work man and I look forward to continuing to support your efforts in the future.

peace and light,
adam

Awesome thread Robert! Your work is amazing!

I really appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge of tea, teawares, and Japanese culture here on teachat. Also, thanks so much for the etsy shop!

As you know, I have a little collection of your works that has continued to grow over the past year. All the pieces are amazing and I've gotten good use out of all, but one sees far less use than the rest (my fault). The shino guinomi pictured below doesn't get used very often because it's very porous and drinks as much sake as I do. I know there are ways to kinda seal it up a bit, but I've been putting it off as I'm nervous that I'll mess it up. I simply don't have any experience doing this. Could you recommend to me a method for sealing this up a bit? I've read about a number of ways that different people have used for porous clays, but I think I'd rather take your direct advice as I really value your opinion and experience.

Hope you don't mind me asking this here. I think your advice about this will only help make the teachat community a better one.

cheers,

Adam

Thanks for the note Adam as well as your continued and long standing support of my work and family. Your comments are more than generous as well.

I haven't heard about any guinomi of mine drinking sake however it doesn't surprise me knowing it's creator ..... Probably the best way for me to ascertain what the issue is is if you would kindly return the guinomi along with one isshobin of "Mu" and one isshobin of "Hana no Mai", and I will begin investigations promptly!

Seriously, I know that Hagi chawan, like many open and porous clay bodies, will leak or sweat when new however soaking the chawan will help as will continued use over time. A guinomi is slightly different however and proably the best thing I could recommend would be to disolve a mixture of 1/2tbsp of cornstarch (in Japan people use katakuriko which is starch made from satsuma imo/potato) into 1 cup of warm water then pour this into the guinomi and let sit for 5 or 6 hours. If this doesn't help with the issue, I am happy to exchange the piece for another one should that be your desire Adam.

Attached is a guinomi from a few firings past.........

Best wishes,
R

+1 on the corn starch. I recently used a mix of 1 tablespoon per 16 ounces water on several Hagi.

I first did it with cold mix, never heated, then I did it with a boiled mix. No leaks after this treatment on Guinomi-s and a Wan that had leaked ... no ran out like through a screen.

This enhanced their personal value to me.

Thanks guys.

You're very generous Rob. Sending it back never crossed my mind. In fact, I assumed it would be a little leaky when I bought it. Just never got around to sealing it up a bit until now. I have previously bought rough sand pieces from other artists that were without complete glaze coverage and all displayed this characteristic, some more so than others. In my mind it's just part of the character of the piece. The guinomi wouldn't evolve as nicely without it.

Last night I used the technique you and Chip mentioned. As the starch would settle I'd give it a little stir. This morning I dumped it, rinsed the guinomi out, blotted it off, and set it out to dry. It's gonna take a couple of days to fully dry. I predict success! After this, I'll just let the sake work it's magic.

ronin ceramurai wrote: If this doesn't help with the issue, I am happy to exchange the piece for another one should that be your desire Adam.

I want to point out to everyone just how generous this gesture is. I bought this guinomi from you maybe ten months ago and you're willing to exchange it?! That's incredible "customer care". I'm not going to take you up on the offer, but I surely appreciate it.

While polymerized potato (or rice or seaweed) starch may work well for plugging leaks in tea vessels, I would be cautious about predicting success for your sake cup. Ethanol is a reasonably good organic solvent; heated, somewhat 'oily' sake may dislodge the starch thin film after the first use. Ehtanol-water mixtures have nearly half the surface tension (affecting pore wetting) of pure water*. You might have to repeat the starch sealing process to get a good film seat, especially if the average channel throat size (smallest diameter of channel path connecting inside to outside) is fairly large.

Technical blab on surface tension, with values for water and ethanol at 20degC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_tension_values

This may be why Robert made the offer to inspect the cup if the sealing process fails, beyond standing behind the usability of his artwork.