Here is what everyone else is doing in my village.
Here is what I am doing.
When I finished my kiln I was so excited to get back to making things I went in to my studio and set it up to make large pots. I finished that and then realized I didn’t have any clay.
I use clay straight from the pit. I have about 30 tons of it stored in two locations. The pictures show a mix I will use for flat ware. It has a type of clay from a place called Ishibe that splits very easily. In the photo I have about 360 kilos. For one kiln load I need about 1.3 tons.
The pug I bought new. Now, Japanese customer service is generally good. I bought the pug, used it for about 3 months and the motor burned out. It is a 600,000 yen machine with a guarantee. What kind of guarantee I will never know. I called the company up and they were offended I had broken their machine. They told me they had never had a motor burn out in the history of the company and they had been in business since the Edo period. They then sent someone out to fix it and then presented me with a bill, telling me how lucky I was as I only had to pay half the actual cost. I was a little miffed and asked them exactly what good their guarantee was. I then got a call a couple of months later from a guy who apprenticed with the same guy I did. He wanted to buy the same kind of machine from the company, what was my opinion. I gave him the unvarnished story. I then got a call about a week later from the company asking me why I had bad mouthed the company. Yes, Japanese customer service.
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