The studio!

This post is about the amazing studio and facilities I get to work in while in Japan. I love this studio! Each artist gets their own space, but the studio is open, so all the artist work in a big room together. This lets us see each others' work and learn from each other!

In the video I show  studio, glaze room, plaster room, and kiln room which has both electric and gas kilns. The electric kilns use electricity to heat up the kiln like and oven and fire the pieces to the clay becomes hard like a rock. The gas kiln does the same thing, but it uses gas and fire to make the clay hard. These kilns can go up to 2,300 degrees!! They also have wood kilns on the grounds. I will do a video about them once they have a firing going.

Here are some pictures of the studio. As you can see, all of the artists make very different work. This is great because it let's us learn new techniques from each other.

I actually learned a new technique just yesterday. One of the artist wanted to make a very large 3 foot wide plate. He used clay slip (liquid clay) on a spinning wheel to spread the clay over a large plate mold. I've included a video. When the clay slip dries it will be removed from the mold!

Here are a few pictures of the plat on the next day. As you can see, the clay is staring to seprate from the mold! I can't wait to see it when it is finished!

Getting Suplies!

Today a few artists and I went to get supplies to make our artwork!  First off was clay!

Each 2 lines of vertical squares is a different clay fired at different temperatures. One line is the fired clay without glaze, the other is fired clay with glaze. They have many different types of Earthenware/Terracotta, Stoneware, and Porcelain.  I chose one red clay and one white clay.

We also had the chance to see how they process the clay. The raw materials from the mines are gound down and mixed into vats. Then they are put into the mixing mills! These mills can hold and mix 6 tons at a time! That is 12,000 pounds!

 The clay, once mixed, is pressed to remove excess moisture. We got to see this machine in action!

 The clay is then cut and put into a pug mill, a machine that gets all of the air bubbles out and shapes the clay.

 Each bag of clay is about 25 pounds.

After getting clay we went to the glaze and tool shop! This shop is full of colors and tools to make whatever you want.  I also liked the baseball tanuki!

So with my new tools I am starting to create some work. Here is a preview of my first piece!

My Walk Around the Park.

Hi Everyone,

The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park is covered in wonderful artwork, all made with clay! Here are some pictures of my walk around the park. There are hundreds of pieces all made by the artists that spent time here! Hopefully I will have a piece here soon. I'll try to include artists names when I can.

First pictures of the scenery around the park.