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| Making Pots |
One of the cool things about living in the sticks is although not a lot is going on, when something does happen it is usually pretty cool. Over the course of the past year and a half I have made a lot of friends that are my senior by about 20+ years. Well, a few weeks ago Ayumi and I were invited to go with one of my English students to a friend of her's secluded mountain hideout where she and her husband hand throw pots and bowls. We were able to play around for a few hours and ended up making a flower vase and two mugs. Although they weren't much to look at being able to use something we made will be pretty cool when we get finally get them.
Friday afternoon they started the fire and Saturday night they invited us to come along and spend the evening with them adding wood to the fire, eating good foods and chatting. We left the house around 5 pm and ended up staying until about 1 AM. We intended on staying all night but, being the weekend a lot of people showed up to participate and although we were invited to stay our ride was wanting to head home and although fun that late in the night our own futons sounded like heaven.
Pretty much what goes on is they have this giant oven which they built about ten years ago. Over the course of three days they slowly raise the temperature inside of this kiln to 1200 Celsius (2192 Fahrenheit) where once the temp is reached they keep at a constant for a whole day. Everyone just talks around this oven watching a thermometer and adding fire every 5-10 minutes while we feast on seafood and Japanese deliciacies. Although outside is freezing cold the oven is encased in a barn which heated things up pretty nice where we weren't cold at all. I can't begin to explain the colors inside that furnace I saw but, tried to snag a few photos which turned out pretty cool.
At a point they reached into the fire and pulled out a few mugs with giant tongs. Immersing this in water (if it doesn't shatter) gives the pottery a rare color. I have a picture of that as well. Not a lot more to tell other than a good time was had by all, I singed the hair on my left hand and wish I had more opportunity to do fun things like this!
Peeze out!
