Soda Spray (Oxidation) / January 20, 2016 by S T

I wanted to see what would happen if a solution of soda ash mixed with baking soda (containing equal weights of sodium carbonate and bicarbonate) was sprayed onto glazed pieces prior to firing at cone 6 in an electric kiln. You can see that the soda spray gives dramatic differences after firing. I found that there were no significant harmful effects of this treatment on the bricks and heating elements in the kiln.

Simon Leach & Tomoo Hamada Workshop: The Legacy Continues / May 12, 2015 by S T

Simon Leach (left) and Tomoo Hamada (middle) are both accomplished potters, and also the grandsons of two influential potters, Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada, who first met in Japan around 1920 and would lead the studio pottery movement in both England and Japan.

Minori (right) helped organize this first joint one-day workshop with Simon and Tomoo on May 12, 2015, at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia. To see both prominent potters, Simon Leach and Tomoo Hamada, throw side by side, like their grandfathers, was history in the making.

You can watch a short video of the event by clicking on the screen above.

Thanks again to Simon Leach and Tomoo Hamada, the Clay Studio, Colin and Minori Thorpe, and Duotone, as well as all others who made this event possible.

Floating Clay / April 1, 2015 by S T

I wanted a novelty item for the University of Delaware “Ag Day” to raise money for additional support of the Ceramic Department. The idea was to make shapes from floating clay and have children paint them at our ceramics booth and then take them home to decorate baths and pools.

I tried to simulate a recipe for floating clay I found in a magazine by replacing the ingredients with materials readily available in the USA. All the fired pieces sank! My “Titanic” recipe used 0.5% silicon carbide - the same percentage used in the original recipe. Silicon carbide is the critical ingredient (it decomposes on heating to release carbon dioxide to generate a sort of volcanic pumice) so I increased it to almost 10%.

Now the frogs, turtles and water lilies float nicely!

Floating Clay Recipe

Custer feldspar

Kona F4 feldspar

Ball clay

EPK (kaolin)

Silicon carbide

Gum solution

40g

10 g

5 cc

Survivor Sculpture / January 1, 2015 by S T

After spending more than thirty years as a practicing nurse anesthetist, I saw many women, both young and old, needing operations for breast cancer. Every time, I felt a need to speak about these courageous woman, so decided to express this through sculpture.

A card I created for the exhibit of sculptures.

My Visit to Mashiko / December 1, 2014 by S T

Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada collaborated in the early 1920's - first in Japan and then in the UK. Hamada returned to Japan in 1923 and eventually moved to Mashiko where he and other artists formed the mingei folk art movement.

I visited Mashiko in 2012 a year after the devastating Tohoku earthquake and the nuclear accident in Fukushima. Many traditional noborigama kilns were damaged or destroyed in the earthquake and much of the wood used for firing was unusable because it was contaminated by radiation.

An outpouring of financial support led to the creation of the "Mashiko Art and Craft Residence" hosting visiting artists.

Philip Leach, a grandson of Bernard Leach, was the inaugural foreign artist. I met Philip during my visit together with Tomoo Hamada, a grandson of Shoji Hamada.

Potter Shoji Hamada's sankokan. — Potter Shoji Hamada's *sankokan.*

My visit to Mashiko inspired me to describe the recovery of this wonderful area published in Ceramics Monthly, December 2014.

Clay Culture: Mashiko Renewal
by Minori Thorpe with Ashley R. Barber

Soda Firing (Reduction) / November 15, 2013 by S T

During a visit to Tokyo I attended an exhibition of wood-fired ceramics by famous artists. The pieces were fired over 10 days to cone 10-11 in noborigama kilns using up to 4,000 bundles of red pine wood!

I wondered if I could approximate the beautiful glaze characteristics in a simpler way – by using a gas-fired kiln introducing a suspension of baking soda supplemented with wood ash through multiple spray holes. We built the kiln used parts from old electrical kilns. The firebox is at the bottom left and several spray holes are visible.

Trying noborigama technique with a gas-fired kiln. — Trying *noborigama* technique with a gas-fired kiln.

More details can be found in Ceramics Technical, 2013, vol. 37, "An Alternative to Woodfiring Using Gas at Cone 6" by Minori Thorpe.

Origami Ceramics / September 1, 2010 by S T

Observing a ceramics class project at UD, I was impressed to see how faithfully the shapes of leaves were retained pressed into the surface of clay slip before firing. That gave me the idea to see if folded origami pieces could be preserved in clay.

The first issue was to select a paper strong enough to survive dipping into slip – I eventually settled on 96 lb. Bristol board. I used a homemade clay slip supplementing it with paper fiber for workability. Later, I found a standard porcelain slip worked well – adding paper fibers as before.

I carefully dipped paper cranes in the slip, completed missed areas with a brush, and then allowed the piece to dry. Once hardened, I applied a second coat with a brush and repeated this once more when the layer had dried. Brushing is important – dunking the piece in slip a second and third time causes the origami to slump!

I have used a variety of glazes in conventional oxidation and reduction firings (again brushed onto the origami). For raku firing it was impractical to retrieve the fragile red-hot pieces from the kiln with tongs. So a sculpture student kindly made steel perforated baskets with sturdy handles to hold multiple small origami pieces.

I could then maneuver them out of the kiln without damaging their delicate cargo. We later found these metal baskets are convenient for firing a wide variety of raku objects including large sculptures.