It was the worst firing I ever had in my ceramics career! One of the clay I mixed into the original was unknown but I was assuming it would be OK. I have a few bags of clay I got from my friends who are ceramicists and sculptors. The unknown clay was one of those and it caused bubbles and cracks in the body after high temperature firing and it looks really ugly.
This is when you think "Enough!" with ceramics. There are so many happenings in the firing even though you spend so much time constructing it. Well, in this case I shouldn't have used the funny clay but even though you know what you're using there are so many faults that stay mysterious forever.
Anyway what I did was to eat a bar of chocolate to calm down myself and apologise to those who are expecting their orders. Then I started making another batch and hopefully I will get them done very soon...!
By the way the cup in the picture is my best favourite I got at Matsumoto (Please check my old post.) It is thrown in porcelain and curved with sculpting knife. It is a very common decorating technique called 'shinogi' in Japan but her pattern is done really really beautifully and I can't help admiring it.
この間、釉薬がけした後の焼きをしたのですが、びっくりする程、最悪でした。もともと、わけのわからない粘土を混ぜたことが原因なのですが、クリスマスオーダーだったので、いつも以上に「もうっ！！」と思いました。（モノ作りでも人間関係でも、成りのわからないものはできれば避けた方がいいと思いました。こちらの手間だけとられてしまいますね。）
とりあえず、チョコレート一箱食べ、自分を落ち着かせ、また作り始めました。今は冬の気候になっているので、粘土の乾きが悪いのです。次の日に作り始められるように準備だけして、家に帰り、オーダーを入れてくれてくれていた人々に報告と謝りのメールを打ちました。そして、家でも一服。松本で手に入れたお気に入りの桑田智香子さんのカップにお茶をいれ、友人が送ってくれたひさごアネスを頂きました。やはり日本の味が一番落ち着きます。
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