I’ve been running around for the past few weeks, trying to get everything together for Design Festa vol. 29, one of Asia’s biggest art events. Design Festa is a twice yearly free for all of art, with 15,000 booths of art, 70,000 visitors, live music, and all sorts of art related things. Tomorrow, we leave to fly across the world and to set up our little booth in Tokyo Big Sight, the largest (and possibly strangest looking) expo site in Japan.
The fair will open at 11am on Saturday the 16th and should be a crazy non-stop art experience. We’ll be in booth D-001, the very first booth in the main Atrium. We’ll be pretty easy to spot. I’m bringing 15 critters, 1000 postcards, and 200 business cards (assuming the business cards get here in time). Should be an awesome weekend.
I’m not sure what the wireless internet set up will be like in the convention center. I’m going to be taking photos non-stop and will be trying to upload them as I go. I should also be posting to twitter when I can, so feel free to follow me. In addition to our time in Tokyo, we’ll also be spending a while in Kyushu and Shikoku. We’ll also be stopping by the studio of Mike Martino, an American working as a traditional potter in Karatsu, Japan. All in all, this should be an incredible trip!
We unloaded the kiln on Saturday, and it looks like a great firing. I’ve spent the last two days trying to clean up all of the work, and sort it as to where it will be going. Most of the beasts came off of their wads cleanly, meaning there wasn’t too much work to do as far as that. What was harder was deciding where each piece should go. I’ve set aside four to submit to jurried shows, another four or five to send to a show in Idaho, about 10 to take with me to Japan, and another 10 to 12 that will be for sale online. They’ll all be showing up online at around noon (PDT) on April 18th – so if you feel like buying a piece, check back near then!
I’m also finally all packed up for NCECA. I’ll be spending four days there, and then camping in the area with my dad, my brother, and my brother’s wife. It should be a lot of fun!
I’m back from the woodfiring, and have finally had a chance to relax, and get caught up email and so forth. Overall, I feel like it was a pretty solid firing. There were no crisis and no drama. Everything went as planned. We dropped cone 13 in the front of the kiln, and were probably in the cone 12 range in far back section of the kiln. That’s fairly standard, and where we like to be. We kept front of the kiln over 2300f for a day or two, though we would have liked the back to be hotter. It was generally in the 2100’s for the last couple days, seldom staying in the 2200’s, which would have been nicer. Regardless, there’s not too much point in speculating until we unload it on the 4th.
It’s going to take a few days for me to sort and clean all of my new work. I need to decide which pieces will be traveling to Idaho for a show at the Art Spirt Gallery, and which pieces will be coming with me to Design Festa in Tokyo. However, it’s my goal to to have all the photos go online, and new pieces for sale on the 18th. I’ll post more information after I’ve unloaded the kiln.
By the end of the firing, everyone ends up so very tired. This is the last night. We’re just working on maintaining temp, especially in the back of the kiln. We’ve dropped cone 13 in the front, and it looks like cone 13 in the far back might be soft. It’s hard to tell, since cone 12 reacts to the ash or something, and doesn’t melt like it should.
Tomorrow morning, we’ll mud up the kiln, and reduce cool it for a few hours. That will probably start in about seven hours.
Here’s a photo of the wood at the start of the firing, and how it is now. We got a whole brand new cord of wood that’s unstacked in the “after” photo.
The other photo is of the night crew. They’re good folks.
