New Pictures of the Kamaka Anagamas

These two kiln pictures were taken by my son using the panoramic utility on his I-phone.  They give a better impression of the size of the kilns than an ordinary photograph can achieve. What fun they were to fire.

News I would Rather Not Have

In the last N.Z. Potter's magazine was a report that Kenneth Clark, the New Zealand ceramicist who worked in London for many years had died at the age of 89.  He visited us in 1970 when our house was being built and we asked him to make some tiles for our bathrooms.  He asked our architect, John Scott, what colours he thought the bathrooms would be.  John's favourite colour was Air-sea Rescue Orange, or, if you prefer, "Poppy Red", for the main bathroom and Midnight Blue for the second bathroom.   On his return to UK Kenneth made this group of four tiles and fourteen single ones for the orange room and this group of blue and brown for the other bathroom. Kenneth and his wife Ann produced a large amount of very beautiful work.

More Screens

 These are two of the screens that I have made.  The top one is to shade a very hot area on our deck in the summer.  They are easily removed as they are held between the posts with small pad-bolts.  The other photo is of a pair of sliding screens that give endless patterns depending on how much overlap they are given.

Beautiful Screens

These are but two of the many screens I photographed while in Japan.  The top picture is of a window screen in a Kyoto Ryokan and the Shoji (door) screen was at another ryokan in Kanazawa.  In Korea screens like these are even more complex

Our Weather

We often have lovely cloud patterns in the evening which occasionally turn to rain.  It has been dry and frosty recently but rain is predicted for the end of the week.

Spring Frosts

The top picture is of a miniature camellia and rock in my pond surrounded by ice one frosty morning.  The collection of vintage and home-built aeroplanes was last weekend when they had a get together.  I would like to be able to show you the collection of helicopters that gathered there last night.  There were at least ten ready for frost fighting over the near-by vineyards.  Last year there were over forty one night and there are at least seventy helicopters on call if needed. Not helpful for getting a good sleep.

Using Stones

Stone has been a wonderful building material throughout human history.  This lovely curved bridge at Katsura Imperial Palace in Kyoto leads to a beautiful Tea House.  At Uji, near Kyoto, is a famous pottery which, sadly, was closed when we visited but I could not resist photographing their stone fence.  The fence to their pottery workshop was made with old kiln props and shelves and was a real work of art.