John Baymore ... Wood-fired Chadogu and Pottery

[FiveStar]

Beautiful, John! Looks very nice and tidy. Looks pretty tall inside. Big enough to stand/stoop in? Sure makes loading nice.

What's that hanging above? Never seen one!

[JBaymore]

Thanks. The students did a fantastic job in the 14 straight days it took to build it.

The last rear step stacking height is just over 48" high. At the front at the highest point (after the tapering front from the door rises upward) I can JUST stand upright.....I'm 5' 9" tall.

The object over the kiln is a Shimenawa with shide......... a Shinto purification/blessing braided rice straw rope, with paper cutouts hanging below. There is also a Shinto Kamidana in the eaves of the kiln shelter building for the Kamagamisama. And before we started the whole build on the site we purified the site with salt.

best,

................john

[blairswhitaker]

wow, great looking Kiln! takes me back to my university days when I took a Kiln building class.

When do you break it in? will the students have to build/throw work throughout the semester or is this the accumulation of the course they were involved in?

[Chip]

That's a beauty, John!

[Seeker]

really gorgeous.
would love to see that baby in action!

[JBaymore]

IAClogo-Teachat.jpg (11.38 KiB) Viewed 4183 times

I am pleased to say that I am off to be one of the presenters at the International Academy of Ceramics General Assembly in Dublin, Ireland.

See you all when I get back.

best,

................john

[JBaymore]

And one more time with the international travel bit............

I am headed off on Tuesday to the People's Republic of China to be a presenter and exhibit at the 2nd World Tea Culture and Ceramics Symposium in Chong Qing and also to exhibit work at the Jingdezhen Ceramics Festival.

See you all in a little while.

best,

................john

[Fuut]

Sounds interesting! Any chance it will be taped?

[JBaymore]

Back from China. Exhausted..... but what a great time. Drank enough good teas to float an aircraft carrier. Learned a lot. The exhibition was great. My presentations went well. Had TV and still cameras stuffed in my face constantly. A lot of the main "tea industry" people in China were there....got to meet a lot of them.

In fact, I served tea myself (US South Carolina grown "American Heritage") to Dr. Sunsay Yu, Chairman of the Chinese Tea Culture International Exchange Association.

All in all... quite sucessful. (I expect to be back in Beijing next year too.)

On the way home my whole carry-on was packed full of teas.....both gifts to me and purchases. Pu-er-s, oolongs, white, ....ah... the coming joys. Even the US Customs agent when I entered the US commented "That's a lot of tea!".

A couple of pictures soon.

best,

....................john

[JBaymore]

Almost finished loading the brand new anagama (named Fushigigama) at the college today. Firing coming up October 30, 31, November 1 and 2.

Blair....... lots of my Chawan in there ...... hopefully one will be good enough to be destined for your Chakai there in Kyoto. Red circles in photo mark a few of them. Lots more also.

NHIA-AnagamaLoad-BaymoreChawan-400w.jpg (39.21 KiB) Viewed 4042 times

best,

..............john

[debunix]

Sounds like a great trip....and the loaded kiln is very promising. Hope the firing goes well!

[andrzej bero]

Hi John, it sounds like you had a very intensive time in China. I wonder how this will affect your art.

[blairswhitaker]

Almost finished loading the brand new anagama (named Fushigigama) at the college today. Firing coming up October 30, 31, November 1 and 2.

Blair....... lots of my Chawan in there ...... hopefully one will be good enough to be destined for your Chakai there in Kyoto. Red circles in photo mark a few of them. Lots more also.

NHIA-AnagamaLoad-BaymoreChawan-400w.jpg

best,

..............john

Wow! This is super exciting! Sounds like you had a great trip to China as well.

[JBaymore]

Some images from the 2nd Tea Culture Symposium held at Sambong Hot Springs Resort in the mountains outside ChongQing, People's Republic of China at the beginning of October 2014.

TitleImage.jpg (36.93 KiB) Viewed 4001 times

The main stage where a lot of stuff happened.

TheStage.jpg (18.06 KiB) Viewed 4001 times

The resort area from the top of a mountain I climbed.

TheResortAreaFromAbove.jpg (28.1 KiB) Viewed 4001 times

[JBaymore]

Opening ceremony

OpeningCeremony.jpg (26.73 KiB) Viewed 4001 times

During the opening, small groups of us sitt ing at tables had tea served to us by a group of women. "Pecking order" was evident as is often the case in Asia, by the location of the table. I was impressed...... was in the second row of a LOT of tables.

OpeningCeremony1.jpg (24.86 KiB) Viewed 4001 times

Professor Yucel Basegit (Turkey) -to my left- and I were the only invited non-Asians at the whole event. We stood out like a "sore thumb".

OpeningCeremony2.jpg (31.11 KiB) Viewed 4001 times