Blast From The Past – IWCAT
Yesterday I received an email from a potter Emily who lives in Japan and teaches on an Air Force Base, asking for some advice. She is a “student turned teacher” and wanted some
Colleen and I getting ready for Tea Ceremony
resources to learn more about ceramics. As I was thinking where I could direct her for information, I started remembering when I went to Japan to study ceramics. It was 1987, and I was accepted to the International Workshop of Ceramic Art in Tokoname (IWCAT).
I googled IWCAT to see what came up. What a blast from the past, they have pictures posted from 1987, and I suddenly saw my young, naive face with a bad haircut staring back at me!!! What a shock, I wasn’t expecting that at all. I keep thinking about my time studying ceramics in Japan. If anyone reading this has ever had the dream of going to Japan to study cramics IWCAT is the program for you. It is one of the finest memories I have, I loved Tokoname, the people I met, the potters, and
Yep, this is me: Raku Japanese style
best of all learning about Japan and its culture. I run down stairs and start looking for pictures. I can’t find many pictures; I start to panic, what happened to all those rolls of film, I’m frantically looking through old pictures. Then it dawns on me, how much technology has changed, and the way we take and show pictures, back in the day, the way to share pictures with friends was with slides. Most of the pictures I have from Japan are slides. I don’t have a way to transfer my slides to digital images, but I found a few pics to scan.
My time in Tokoname was so action packed, we did raku, fired a nobrigama, anagama, participated in a traditional tea ceremony, visited archeologist excavating an ancient kiln, had Japanese children teach us calligraphy, we did so much, it was such an amazing time. I could go on and on. Emily, thank you so much for your question, it sent me down memory lane.
The National Treasure
The National Treasure's hand.
In his studio.
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Thank YOU for the great answers to my question! And for mentioning me on your blog. I feel famous now!
(Cool pictures. You’ve motivated me to find a local potter to learn from!!!)
February 25th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Emily, the first class I throwing class I taught i was always messing up. I was so embarrassed, but my students were so sweet they said it made them feel better, to see me mess up, because trhrowing is so hard.
February 25th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
what a great opportunity, maybe someday… i recently went back and found all my slides of work in grad school and undergrad too. i think there are several, but i went to scancafe and they will make hi-rez digital copies for 19 cents/per, i think, or 29 cents, can’t remember. but don’t sign up if you’re not gonna do it or they will start sending spam. i must have been an unreal experience in japan