1989

Illustrated is a large, rather well weathered Raku teabowl by one of my favorite people ever; Bill Klock. I was around when Bill threw this teabowl, when it was tooled and later glazed and fired, it was late in '89. I am not exactly sure when, but at some point Bill and a student (perhaps Dave Farrell) built a rather nice, somewhat large Raku kiln in preparation for Paul Soldner coming to PSUC to give an extended workshop. As I mention, the kiln was a good size, perhaps 14cft and used propane and came to temperature rather easily, stayed hot while removing pots and was just easy to use. Another two students and I used it quite often and I was able to work out a number of accent glazes that could be used on top of various glazes they were already using as well as being able to spray the surfaces using paper and cardboard cutouts to create designs.

I have absolutely no examples or photos of these early Raku pots, all were given and traded away, I still have several of Bill's from these firings of which this is one of them. Generous in size and perched upon a classic Bill foot. This pot was glazed up in Soldner's white and then green glaze I had made up was trailed over the surface, the addition of the blue decoration was mine and in fact was simply added by dipping my fingers in the glaze and touching them to the surface and you can see my thumbprint to the extreme right. Pulled from the kiln, the teabowl was placed in a barrel filled with shredded paper and sawdust for the post firing reduction. This teabowl had been in a box since our move from Cleveland many moons ago and I woke up one morning and just decided it was time to pull it out and put it on a shelf where I could see it every day. Bill may be gone but in some small part due to the handful of his puts that are about the house, I feel like I carry on a quiet and thoughtful conversation.

Despite Bill's inclinations, I know that as we were doing Raku there was music playing in the background as there were a group of students involved and a democracy rules. In all honesty I can't say I remember what was on but it was most likely a Vermont FM radio station playing all of the hits of 1989;