NagareKiln notes from a small studio in Mashiko — issue nine, autumn
Nothing here is finished. Nagare publishes what a kiln leaves behind — the warped lip, the ash that fell where it wanted, the glaze that pooled and stopped.
Scroll ↓The foot is left unglazed on purpose.
A bowl is finished at the rim and honest at the base. We wipe the foot ring bare so the clay can be read: its grog, its iron, the wire-cut spiral the potter never smoothed away. Buyers turn our bowls over first. That is the correct order.
Mashiko · 益子| Hour | Cone | °C | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08 | — | 640 | Slow. Wet pine. |
| 19 | 06 | 1002 | First ash on shelf two. |
| 28 | 9 | 1280 | Front row glossing. |
| 36 | 11 | 1315 | Back row still dry. |
| 41 | 11 | 1310 | Stopped stoking. Let it fall. |
Of forty-one pieces, nine survived intact. Four are better for the failure.
A crack that runs and stops is a record of one moment of cooling. We fill it with lacquer and gold and we do not pretend it never happened. The repair is the second maker.
Take the emptiness as the object.
Ninety per cent of this page is unused, and that is the part we made most carefully. Nagare ships four times a year, or fewer.
Issue nine · autumn