純青窯 Natural Green Pottery

New Works

2011-07-20T01:16:00.001-04:00

Personal Size Blue Ash Berry Bowl

Personal Size Shino Berry Bowl

Large Bowl with Amber Celadon/ Blue Ash Glazes

Large Bowl with Copper Red/ Blue Ash Glazes

Shino Tea Caddy

Here are some new works that just came out of cone 10 reduction firing over the weekend. I found some interesting glaze combinations: Copper Red (inside) works well with most dark glazes (on outside).
At the same time, I also found that never use Amber celadon (inside) and Shino (on outside) on the same piece. Unfortunately, 1/5 of kiln load were in this glaze combination and they went straight to dumpster.
I am so used to with monochrome ceramics. Finding good glaze combination on one piece is quite challenging. I probabily shouldm't always trust my intuition.

Plates / 志野, 黑釉小盤

2011-06-13T01:14:00.000-04:00

Recently, I try to trim and cut round wheelthrown plates to create flower-like design. A lots of process, but I will still keep it simple. Here are some images of my new plates.

Five-side floral plate with Shino glaze

Foue-side floral plate with iron saturate glaze

Round plates were cut to five or four sides with surform

Using slip to trail out lines

Same shape but different slip trailed designs

Teaching

2011-06-09T00:26:00.000-04:00

Just would like to show off some students' works from my beginning wheel-throwing class at UNC-Greensboro. What a rewarding teaching experience!!
These young kids are full of energy and creativity. I have tried very hard to equip them with the skills and knowledge that will enable them to transform their creative concept into reality.
For this class, I did encourage them to copy well-made ceramic works; traditional or contemporary. It was the way Chinese artist learned from their master for centuries, and this was the way I examined how well they have learned from this class.
I also included two interesting works from my previous hand-building class: A Tang dynasty lady playing Guitar Hero and a Japanese Haniwa working on his lap top.

Lidded jar with carving

Lidded jar with springging

Lidded jar with Shino glaze

Tang lay paying Guitar Hero

Haniwa working on his lap top

Cone 10 Reduction/ 10 號錐還原燒

2011-04-13T23:57:00.003-04:00

After doing some adjustments inside of the gas kiln I fired at UNCG, I finally gained some control of cone 10 reduction firing. Each firing made me become more humble. I used to believe that I knew everything about pottery. This kiln, however, made me relearn many things.

OX Blood Red

Amber Celadon

Cone 6 Glazes / 6號錐氧化燒

2011-03-23T00:46:00.007-04:00

On my previous post, I mentioned that two glazes on my tea pot – Orange Street and Creamy Rust are in Mastering Cone 6 Glazes. I think I was wrong. A blog reader couldn’t find the recipes from that book.
Here are the two glaze recipes I would like to share.
Just a friendly reminder!! Cone 6 glazes react to work-heat ratio slightly different from the cone 10 glazes. A different firing program could change how the glaze turned out from firing. Always run some tests on smaller pieces before you use them on your “real” works.
I fired my works in Cone Art kiln (have I ever mentioned that Cone Art is my favorite kiln since I was working for the porcelain company in Taiwan : ) with fast glaze program and hold at cone 6 for 20 minutes.
I got most of cone 6 glazes from Sawtooth School for the Visual Art, Winston-Salem, NC, where I am teaching an intermediate/ advance wheel-throwing class.

ORANGE STREET:
Silica 15.2%
Talc 13.8%
Dolomite 8.1%
EPK 4.5%
Gerstly Borate 17.9%
F-4 Feldspar 46.8%
Red Iron Oxide 12%
Bone Ash 12%
Crocus Martis 6.2%

CREAMY RUST:
Custer 26.6%
Strontium Carbonate 3.3%
Frit 3134 30.6%
Wollastonite 10.6%
Talc 2.3%
EPK 8.4%
Flint 18.2%
Red Iron Oxide 6%
Tin Oxide 5%
Zircopax 8%

my glaze logs recorded how I applied and fired each glaze

glazed the whole piece in Orange Street and then dipped around 1/3 of the piece in Creamy Rust

when Creamy Rust is over Orange Street, it tend to run

24th NC Pottery Conference

2011-03-07T02:00:00.005-05:00

Over the weekend, I attended the 24th NC Pottery Conference and worked with 6 Chinese students from ECU to help out with translation.
It was a wonderful conference that provided an opportunity to American potters to get a close look of Jingdezhan porcelain making process.
There were 5 demonstrations going simultaneously; Wheel throwing, Trimming, Under glaze decoration, Over glaze decoration, and Slab-building. Each master has been working in his/ her professional field more than 10 years. They were like treasure boxes for the attendances to explore.
If you missed this conference, you can visit Odyssey Clay Center and Penland this Wednesday (slide presentation only) and ECU Speight Auditorium on March 14 and 15 (demo and penal discussion.)

5 presenters from left to right (in front of monitors): Master Feng, Shangjin (overglaze painter), Prof. Feng, Weina (underglaze painter), Master Dai, Guanyu (trimmer), Master Zhan, Shaolin (thrower), and Master Xie, Zhenghua (slab building)

Master Zhan, Shaolin - throwing with no sponge and no cutting wire. He apply slip from his hands to pot and cut off pieces from the hump by fingers

7 hours of works (more pieces on floor). Some pieces were designed by audiences with specific dimensions

Taking a short break in front of his works

Master Xie, Zhenghua joining slabs with no scoring. On Jingdezhen porcelain, scoring would create uneven join surface and increase shrinkage.

Seven things about me............

2011-02-27T02:03:00.009-05:00

My wife often tells friends not to ask me about how she and I met. She says I would make the romantic story become a documentary. However, since I accepted Meredith’s “award”, I would like to tell 7 things that you may not know about me.........

My father was born in Henan province, China, which is the birthplace of Chinese civilization. My father followed ROC government to Taiwan in 1949 after ROC army was defeated by Communist army.
My mother side of families migrated to Taiwan from southern China during the early 19th century. After I learn how to tell romantic story, I will let you know how they met (It’s really romantic.)

I have a very lay back personality. It’s probably due to my birthday, I think. I was born on March 6 and I was actually one week overdue.
On March 6, according to Chinese calendar (the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 345°), the first thunderstorm of the year will wake up all the hibernated insects/ animals. I was probably woke up by the thunder and decided to come to see the world.

When I was a baby, my family lived in a military housing complex near an air force base. Linda’s husband, Gary, used to station there.
I used to “sleep like a baby” till one day, my grandmother visited. She said to my mom “Po-Wen is a such wonderful baby, even fighter jets passing by with such loud noise, he can still sleep so well.” Guess what? Since that day, according to my mom, I began to cry badly whenever fighter jets flied by my house. I believed it’s a lesson many parents had learned!?

Military housing complex was a mainlander neighborhood in Taiwan. Therefore, I could only understand Mandarin when I was little. When my family moved to a Taiwanese neighborhood, some neighbor kids would trick me to get my toys by confusing me with Taiwanese. After few weeks, I gradually became fluent in Taiwanese, and began to trick them to get my toys back. Now I can easily switch back and forth between two dialects.

After graduated from college in Taiwan, I decided to take a test and became a reserve officer served in Chinese Marine Corps (Taiwan).
I served in a LVT unit. Most of my military lives spent either in the ocean or on the beach. Sometime when I close my eyes at night, I can still " hear" the ocean in my ears. I missed that 5K run in the morning and 200+ push ups at night kind of life. Now, I can even hardly finish 50 push ups.

My wife is a Korean. At home, we speak 3 different languages. My kids speak to my wife in Korean, to me, in “some Mandarin” and mostly in English. Between my wife and I, in English.
My wife and I did occasionally communicate in Taiwanese though. Most Korean pronunciations are very close to Taiwanese. When we couldn’t express a certain word in English, we would try to say it in Taiwanese or Korean. 99% of the time, we could figure out the words that we tried to say.

I love to cook. One of my professors used to say that most good potters are also good cooks. I don’t know if I am qualified to be a good potter, but I am sure I am a good cook. My kids can prove it!!
When I was little, I loved to talk to my mom in kitchen when she was cooking . I think I unconsciously learned how to cook during the conversations. Some time I would cook my mom's dishes to ease my homesick.

Well, I don’t know much about other blogger, so I think I am not going to pass this down to next 15 people. However, if any of you would like to share what we don’t know about you beside your pottery, please feel free to do so.

Tea Time II

2011-01-27T20:55:00.003-05:00

Here are few more tea pots that just came out of kiln yesterday.
After switching from Cone 10 reduction to cone 6 oxidation firing, I came to realize that cone 6 oxidation firing is a whole new realm in the ceramic world to explore. I feel it's foolish to reproduce cone 10 glaze quality in cone 6 glazes.
Currently I just modify found cone 6 glaze recipes; mostly added more flux or overlap two glazes to make them slightly “runny”. A clean 45 degree cut on the foot rim can prevent the glaze from running to kiln shelf.

creamy rust over orange street (from Mastering cone 6 glaze)

floating blue over mystery blue/ green

floating blue over very black

mystery blue/ green over floating blue

no tin white

mystery blue green

Tea Time

2011-01-21T16:06:00.001-05:00

Making tea pots is more like meditation to me.
Here are some tea pots I made during those "snow days". I will use some of them to run glaze-blending tests and post later.

Happy Birthday to Alex

2011-01-08T16:40:00.005-05:00

Fourteen years ago, I came to the United States to study ceramics. Fourteen years later today, I am celebrating my son Alex's 10th birthday. Time flies, I have to admit. I think, having a wonderful family is my biggest accomplishment.
Alex has also working very hard to accomplish many things he loves to do: Tae Kwan Do, Piano, Ski, and study (with me holding a bamboo stick behind him :) I have learned how to be a father after became a father.

Happy Birthday Alex!! Take your time to explore the world around you. No rush!!

My Etsy Shop Opening

2011-01-06T21:28:00.000-05:00

While taking some rest from teaching, I have been busy working on setting my new Etsy Shop. I found out that I had missed many settings in my previous Etsy shop. This time, I took it slow and followed instructions step by step. I am looking forward to see some good progress this time. Feel free to visit my shop!!

Textured Vases

2010-12-18T00:57:00.004-05:00

Recently I visited a friend and I didn’t recognize a piece he purchased from me about 3 years ago. The style and glaze on that piece seemed so remote to me.
It seems hard for me to make the same type of work for too long. I think that’s why I love ceramics so much; the potential within clay is endless.
Here are few pieces I am working on lately - textures.

Shino Vase

2010-12-02T23:23:00.003-05:00

I like the thick, creamy texture of shino glaze. Instead of getting orangish color when applying thin, I often add several layers of shino to exaggerate texture of the glaze itself.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-30T23:34:00.006-04:00

Pieces unloaded

2010-10-17T00:12:00.005-04:00

Most pieces from the reduction firing turned out just fine. They were slightly over fired, but color revealed the control of reduction was correct.
For high fire pottery, I like to use iron glazes. I am always fascinated by Chinese Jian ware tea bowls with a roll of glaze that just freeze above the foot; The celadon glazes are so simple and elegant. They both have Zen flavor.
Both Celadon and Temmoku glazes reached their peak during Song Dynasty (960-1670 AD) when the Tea ceremony and Zen Buddhism were flourishing in China and spreading to Korea and Japan.

a small Temmoku tea cup

I increased Whiting to make the glaze run a little more

green Celadon bowl

blue Celadon bowl with slip and combed pattern

First reduction firing in NC

2010-10-13T00:32:00.003-04:00

I often wonder if those who design pottery equipments ever know about pottery at all.
Over the weekend, I did a cone 10 reduction firing. As always, I really enjoyed the firing process. However, firing that "X" company gas kiln was a nightmare...........................
The damper had no control of reduction at all. Instead, I needed to adjust air flow from blower to control reduction. Reading the manual for the kiln is like reading science fiction.
Oh, did I mentioned that the ruler on damper is not for showing how wide the damper is opened but just for "visual reference"? No wonder why so many potters like to build their own kilns.

Return to blogosphere

2010-10-03T23:24:00.008-04:00

Last Friday, I met many blogger-potters and saw their works at the Clay and Blog show opening reception. Tracy was wondering why I don't blog anymore. Well, I am still existing in this blogosphere. I was just out of country for two months.
My wife and I, along with kids, went to visit our families in Korea and Taiwan. We visited many historical sites and watched traditional performances. It's great for kids to immerse themselves in different cultures.

an annex hall of Suwan Palace (水源華城), Suwan, Korea

traditional Korean acrobatic performance

An-Ping Castle (安平古堡), Tainan, Taiwan

New Platters I

2010-05-02T00:20:00.006-04:00

Here are 4 glaze fired platters with carved lotus and painted plum blossom motifs. Lotus (荷花) and plum blossom (梅花) carry important symbolism in Chinese culture.
In a natural environment, lotus grow in muddy pounds. However, when they emerge from the water, they always reveal the most pure color to their surroundings. Chinese often refer the lotus to encourage people to be true to oneself regardless how bad the environment he/ she was brought up with.
Chinese plum tree always bloom in a hush winter. The colder the weather is, the more their flowers bloom. In the old time, Chinese lived in a vase land with a hush environment. People often look for comfort and encouragement from nature.

Production Madness

2010-04-28T01:03:00.013-04:00

For the past few weeks, I have been trying to fine-tune my production cycle and to find an effective way to produce works. The result, in terms of quantity, was good. I pretty much fired kiln every other day. I also found some interesting glaze combinations to create a nicer cone 6 firing result. I will start to post some of my new works (as finished products) in a few days.

Trying Chinese Blue and White drawing on platters

Rice Jar

2010-03-12T00:25:00.012-05:00

My first commission work, after moved to Greensboro, was a rice jar. A Korean friend I met in church couldn’t find a nice rice jar from local Asian grocery market. Soon as she knew that I am a potter, she requested one.
Making a larger piece is fun and rewarding, especially in a show. It often quickly draw people’s attention.
After hand built flower vases for 2 days, I tried to go back to wheel and make few more rice jars. Yesterday I threw 4 separate sections for making 2 rice jars. Today I connect them and then threw handles, lids, and knobs. I should be able complete them over the weekend.

use 25lb of clay for bottom section (20lb for top)

2 sections are ready to be connnected

preparing the bottom section

connecting top and bottom

rice jar #1

rice jar #2

Platters

2010-03-02T23:35:00.007-05:00

Plate and platter are probably the simplest ceramic objects to make. They are just the combinations of a few curve and straight lines. However, the simple thing is often difficult to deal with. It took me for a while to create new designs on new platters.

more carvings

try to bring some Summer heat to warm up this messy weather

more oak plates

Warming Up

2010-02-05T02:59:00.008-05:00

After dropped off kids to schools this morning, I "flew" to studio right away. Schools were closed for 3 days so I needed to shift myself from a full time potter to a full time daddy. Did I say that my vacation mode will go till Chinese New Year!? My body said so but my mind did not allow me to do so. I missed clay.........
After threw 2 bags of clay on floor to wedge them, I made some bowls to warm up my hands and then threw some plates. Not too bad, 2 hours made four 25" plates and several bowls. I am back to business.

曉芳窯 Hsaio Fang Pottery Arts

2010-01-21T13:52:00.010-05:00

I would like to share Hsiao Fang Pottery Arts web site with you all.
I have gained tremendous practical knowledge and experience from Hsaio Fang Pottery Arts when I worked as personal assistant to the founder, Mr. Tsai Hsaio Fang. To me, it's more like an apprenticeship than a full time job. What kind of boss would willingly teach you how to properly do reduction at 2:00 am?
Hsiao Fang Pottery Arts is also the place I highly recommend to visit beside National Palace Museum whenever I have friends plan to visit Taiwan.

Refiring

2010-01-17T23:30:00.021-05:00

December and January were 2 very non-productive months to me in terms of pottery making. On the other hand, the holidays and school winter break had brought me wonderful quality family times. I think my holiday mode is not going to end so soon until Chinese New Year which will fall on February 14 this year.
Over the holidays, I read my pottery mentor-friend Tom Turner's article regarding refiring. Since I haven't produced any now pieces, I tried to refire some old pots. All the refired pieces turned out much "nicer" than from the first firing. On the refired pieces, glaze surface shows slightly runny and gives the piece a reduction fired look. I can see the potential on refirng.

a brown glaze from cone 6 firing

after refiring, the brown glaze looks more like Temmoku

a white glaze looks like cone 10 Yellow Salt glaze after refiring

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2009-12-23T23:10:00.004-05:00

Cone 6 Glaze Firings

2009-12-06T23:43:00.019-05:00

After switched from cone 9/10 reduction firing to cone 6 oxidation firing, I have spent a great deal of times to deal with glaze problems. Mostly, pin holes. Even though I am also a ceramic engineer, I don't have much experiences with cone 6 glazes. Moreover, I have no clue what exactly those clay manufacturers added in their clays.

For the most recent firing, I drilled 2 of 1/4" holes on kiln lid, reset thermocouple reading 25 degree lower than actual temperature in the kiln (Cone Offset), used preset Slow Glaze Firing program, then, held 25 minutes in the end of firing. The pin holes were mostly gone.

Cone offset 25 degree for my kiln is actually about cone 7. Wow, without cone offset, it must be............................. No wonder so many pin holes.

Thermocouple reads actual temperature in the kiln. However, glaze doesn't react to temperature alone. It reacts to both time and temperature during the firing. How can I forget all about this!!??

on the left: cone offset 10 degree; around cone 8

on the right: cone offset 25 degree; around cone 7

before cone offset: many pin holes, especialy on the back

after cone offset 25 degree: 99.9% of pin holes are gone

Daddy's Little Helper

2009-11-22T22:41:00.007-05:00

Just another trimming routing. My daughter, Grace, wanted to keep me company. After having Grace, I started to understand what "daddy's girl" means.

Floating Dream

2009-11-08T00:14:00.008-05:00

I just found out that one of my submissions to 2010 potter's council calender got selected. It's a ceramics pillow called "Floating Dream."
I am quite missing those days when I could spent times to create sculptural works. It helped me to develop critical thinking skills. Now, it helps me to create pots that's more meaningful to me.

Floating Dream

New Plates

2009-11-01T23:10:00.011-05:00

The new plates just came out of kiln yesterday. They turned out nicely. However, they were still slightly overfired.....too shinny. I replaced kiln elements from 240V to 208V about 3 weeks ago. They need to be re-calibrated by doing cone off set for correct firing result. Why it's never being easy to be a potter?!

I like this new process and the way it turns out. Now what? I am the new guy on the block, I need to look for places to sell my works now :)

Enlightenment

2009-10-25T23:28:00.016-04:00

It's funny that Tracy was talking about rainning acorns on her blog few days ago while I had hard time to find an oak tree to study how its leavies grow. I finally forced myself to park my car on a busy road next to a big oak tree and then took out an utility knife cutting off a small branch. And finally, I can work on my plates that awaited me for 3 weeks.

I used to wonder why Tz'u-Chou potter of Chinese Sung dynasty (960-1279 AD) would painstakinly apply white/ black slips on their pieces and then carvced the slip off to create images. Why don't they just paint with color slip?
After working with my new plates, I understood why........:) They treated clay as clay. They found a proper process for the material they use. What an enlightenment!!

cutting paper templates for drawing
carved off white slip to create outline

carved off white slip around the outline

after broke 2 pieces just right after finished carving, I decided to call it a day. BUT, I am still very happy with what I figured out!!

Back to Business

2009-10-24T23:01:00.016-04:00

My wireless router kept getting problems in the past week. I decided to get a new one. Now, I am back to business again!!

Over the weekend, I rearranged my picture folders and found this image. It was taken from Lane Tech High School in Chicago when I visited there for doing a workshop.

Lane Tech is an "AMAZING" high school I've ever visited in the U.S. It has over 4,000 students with an open campus. It also has wonderful art collections. If you ever travel to Chicago, you should call the school to arrange a visit. Here's the school web site: http://www.lanetech.org

Lane Tech has 66 significant murals which depicted important industry (ies) of each state. The image I posted here depicts the porcelain industry of Kentucky. I was told that the female potter in this mural is the only female figure you can find among these 66 murals.....

the female potter in the mural

the mural of Kentucky porcelain industry

Candle Holder

2009-10-16T23:24:00.013-04:00

While waiting for kiln to finish glaze firing, I am trying to make candle holders. This is something that I've never made before. Many traditional Seagrove potters made candle holders. I feel I need to try at least once since I am a NC potter now.
The first candle holder design I have in mind is Chinese Temmoku tea bowl stand. Once I read a book about antique Chinese ceramics, I found the author mistakenly identified a Temmoku tea bowl stand as an oil lamp. It does look like oil lamp when tea bowl is not placed on its top.
To follow a Chinese saying "將錯就錯," which means " to go along with an uncorrected mistake," I altered the idea of oil lamp into candle holder. It is quite fun to make them.

Candle holder portion was thrown in one piece and trim

Stem was thrown separately and attached

Ready for bisque

Glazing

2009-10-16T22:33:00.013-04:00

It's time for glazing. Plum tree branches were carved on bowls and plates. The plum flowers were painted with underglaze brown then covered with celadon color glaze.
I love celadon and temmoku glazes. Unfortunately, I can only access to electric kiln in my new studio. I adjusted few cone 6 glazes to imitate some of my favorite cone 9/10 glazes.
I am glad that I majored in ceramics engineering when I was in Taiwan. It comes in handy whenever I encounter technical problems.

Bisque ware shelf is finally full

Applying undergalze brown

Cone Art Kiln

2009-10-14T00:23:00.018-04:00

Finally, the electrician came to pull a power line for my beloved Cone Art kiln. I did a bisque firing right after electricity was connected. The clicking sounds of relays made me feel the kiln is alive. I felt the same way when I heard the gas kiln burners roar. I always tell friends that firing is my favorite stage in pottery making and they usually give me a strange look.

My Cone Art kiln is reassembled and connected!!

My works seem getting bigger. A plate I thrown last week just fits on the 21" kiln shelf. I might need a bigger kiln soon.

New Studio

2009-10-10T21:53:00.024-04:00

I never felt so anxious to go to my studio and work. I just moved from my home studio to a new studio in downtown Greensboro. The drying speed of my pieces are more predictable in a closed environment. This morning I trimmed my plates and applied white slip. I should be able to carve my new designed patterns on the plates by tomorrow.

Leather hard pieces are ready to be trimmed

Applying white slip

Pieces are ready for carving

Tea Pot Ceremony

2009-10-07T01:42:00.006-04:00

I am a big tea drinker. I love to prepare tea out of the tea pots I made. However, making tea pots is a time consuming process. It could take always times that I can create other works. Therefore, I don't make them often. Once I started, I would need to make at least 10 to 15 pieces simultaneously.