Ready for my Pottery Sale on Saturday

The reason I haven't posted for a long time is that I've been setting up a small pottery studio in our garage and getting ready for my first open studio & sale since we moved to Austin (in addition to teaching 2 pottery classes, grandchild-sitting, and studying more difficult chanoyu temae). It's on Saturday, December 7, so please email me if you want more info.

The first step to making my studio space was to clear out lots of things we had stored there and replace the window glass and blinds. Now there's a space for my 2 potter's wheels (electric and leg-powered treadle) with a view into our front yard where birds and butterflies come to the drought-tolerant native Texas plants. We had a separate electric line and a vent installed for the small kiln and it's full of work and ready to fire.

This is a piece "in progress" cushioned on foam while I carve the surface. I've been testing a variety of clays and will test glazes next before making more things for chanoyu.  

Happy Holidays!

New sewing project

Even after sewing so many pieces for my Shikishidate Goshokago, I was still in a sewing mood. And I wanted to use the beautiful cha-ire (pottery container for thick tea) that I bought last fall, but it didn't have the required shifuku (bag).

It's challenging to follow the instructions on how to measure, and draw the custom-fitted pattern even though the pictures are very detailed. Two friends have helped me translate the Japanese text and I added my own notes in English as I went through the process to help me remember details.

Below are some in-progress photos. I didn't photograph the failed attempt caused by trying to conserve fabric. I cut out the pattern with a minimum seam allowance that frayed, and the bag was too small.

Before cutting the next attempt, I ironed on a very light weight fusible fabric to the back of both the outer fabric and lining, and left a generous seam allowance that could be trimmed away after sewing. Since the fabric I chose was rather stiff and the fusible backing gave it and the lining extra stability, it didn't add the usual thin layer of padding between the layers.

The pattern I made from measurements.

Measuring the chai-re

The bag lining ready for its bottom to be sewn on.  

The bag, inside out, with bottom sewn in. 

Hurray, it fits!

My home-made marudai. 

After basting the lining to the bag, I put it aside and made the kumihimo braid for the drawstring cord on my home-made marudai (frame for braiding). The first silk cord I braided with 8 bobbins/strands of 3ply silk, which turned out to be too small in diameter. I went back to The Needle Works here in Austin for some 6ply red-brown silk embroidery thread, which is better, but still little bit thinner than the cord on my "real" Japanese shifuku in the photo below. I read that I could vary the counterweights to change the thickness of the braid and will experiment with some Perle cotton thread before I work in silk again. 

Photo below: 

Upper left - the new basted shifuku ready for loops and cord, with red cord.

Lower left - my "real" Japanese natsume shifuku for comparison, and the first gold cord that is too narrow.  

Goshokago For Lesson

Last month I was fortunate to have a special lesson in Shikishidate Temae, the procedure for using a lidded basket called goshokago. The set has many more parts than the other Chabako Temae, and it has taken me a year to research the techniques, find the materials to alter or substitute, and put the set together. I would still like to make a rectangular basket and braid the sanadahimo ribbon for it.

First I transformed a purse into a goshokago, by replacing the original handle with a ribbon tie, and removing the zipper. (see Aug 31, 2012 entry "Gosho-bako Progress"

Here is the set. (back to front, left to right)

Goshokago (basket), 2 chawan, natsume on its kobukusa (cloth), chasen in its tsu-tsu (tube), chakin-bako in a shifuku with button closure, chashaku in shifuku, 3 folded kobukusa, furidashi in its ami-bukuro (see my Sept 6, 2012 "Macrame Furidashi Bag") The bukuro for the chawan is in next picture. 

It took me an especially long time to create a pattern for the bukuro (bag) for the nested tea bowls since I did not have a book or directions. My internet research yielded photos of 2 different designs. The more typical one has an inset bottom (on the right below).

The other style bukuro is the type usually made for natsume (tea caddy). It intrigued me because it looks so simple, but it was very hard to create the pattern. After hours of internet surfing I finally found a clue - a pattern for a simple Japanese tote bag that was based on the same general idea. But it had a square bottom and I wanted a curved bottom that would fit the teabowl snuggly. It took 6 attempts to figure out the proportions and curves that would create the right form when sewn together with long enough "ears" to tie it closed.

I lined the final version (below left) with a contrasting fabric even though that is not traditional, to conserve the small amount of plain-colored chirimen silk I purchased online. It was a pleasant surprise when my home-made bukuro looked so similar in shape and size when placed next to the "real" Japanese one that was so kindly given to me later.  The hedate (triangular shaped pad) in the picture goes between the two chawan before they are tied up in the bag.

2 types of bukuro, & a hedate (triangle pad)

 The pattern I created for the bukuro.

Shifuku for chakin-bako in progress.

Unfinished wooden chakin-bako and silver paper origami one.

Cowboy Chabako Gathering

My Cowboy Chabako Tea Gathering last week was very enjoyable. Here are more pictures of the dogu I created. There are more "in progress" photos in my November and September entries.

Closeup of the vintage postcard inside lid of chabako. 

This postcard seemed especially meaningful because we lived in Missouri before moving to Austin. The banner on the postcard, postmarked Aug 31, 1949 to my husband's sister, says:
The first ride of the Pony Express, April 3, 1860, St. Joseph, Mo. to Sacramento, Calif.   This scene shows the dramatic start of the first messenger on that famous route that numbered among its riders such well-known names as Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok. The barn is still standing and pointed out as an object of interest. Reproduced from an original painting, courtesy M.K. Goetz Brewing Co., St. Joseph, Mo. 

The small furo byobu (folding screen put behind the brazier for heating water) is a printed cotton fabric I found in Austin. The chabako box is lined with cotton print fabric that I also used to bind the handle of the coffee pot use as a tetsubin.

I made the kobukusa (small square cloth hot pad) from a store sample of woven striped cotton upholstery fabric; the fukusa from the center of a red bandana backed with red lining fabric to help it fold the way a traditional silk one does.

The chasen-tsutsu (whisk holder) is made of leather, and the chasen-tsutsu (white wiping cloth holder) is a miniature glass boot.

The chawan with cactus motif is by potter Angela Rogers. The furidashi (jar for hard sugar candies) is a tequila glass wrapped in leather, sealed with a a cork stopper with gold foil.

Cowboy Chabako ready for a gathering

I'm planning a tea gathering for 4 guests next Saturday. My "Cowboy Chabako" is ready for the Wakei Chabako temae which was created by Tantansai (Urasenke Chanoyu 14th Grand Master) for his son in WWII who later devoted his life to promoting "Peacefulness through a Bowl of Tea."


On the right is the blue enamel coffeepot for heating water for tea, which is sitting on a copper-lined wooden box that holds the electric heater. Additional sweets will be served in the lidded oval leather box, front right. The cedar chabako, back left, has an usuita, single board, strapped on top. The vintage metal kensui, for receiving discarded rinse water, is a recent Christmas gift. 

The Wakei Chabako temae uses two chawan that nest together with a small lacquered natsume (tea caddy). Angela Rogers made the chawan with cactus motif and I bought the small red raku chawan in Kyoto in 1983. The furidashi sweets container is a tequila glass bound with leather that I fitted with a cork wrapped in gold foil.

See more pictures in my Sept. 24 entry

  

Happy Holly Daze Chabako 

Yesterday I stopped by one of my favorite resale shops and found this cute holiday recipe box (Size: 5 x 4.5 x 6.5 inches) and a set of nesting wooden snowmen boxes. It will be a perfect holiday chabako to take on my trip to visit my parents and sister in Illinois next week, where it's probably more like winter than here in Austin.

Luckily I already had a very small tea whisk and a snowy white teabowl made by Angela Rogers. I will paint the round wooden box (tea caddy) to look like a piece of red & white peppermint candy; varnish the inside of the snowmen - the larger one for hard sugar candy, and the smaller to hold the chakin (white wet cleaning cloth). The red & white cloth underneath will become the kobukusa (small napkin) and tea scoop cover.

Chanoyu is a meditative practice, but I think that it's ok to create some child-like cheer on a cold dreary day. Have fun this winter!

Cowboy Picnic Chanoyu

Vintage leather box made in Texas and Japanese nodate set.

Nodate 野点 is a general term for a picnic style tea ritual often done outdoors or in more casual situations. The most informal nodate set includes a little basket with brocade fabric top and drawstring closure that holds a small teabowl and very small powdered tea container called ko-natsume. The tiny bamboo tea whisk and tea scoop travel along in a small bamboo tube-box attached to the drawstring. The tea scoop folds in half and goes inside the handle of the tea whisk - so neat!  

My friend knew that I had been searching a long time for a leather box for Cowboy Chabako and was thrilled when her friend out in the country offered her an old one made by Nighthawk Saddlery in Bandera, Texas. I am so grateful to receive such a well-made box! It's not quite tall enough for a standard chabako because the lacquer tube for the tea whisk won't stand upright inside it. But, it makes a fun and very informal hybrid chabako-nodate set. 

Here it is with the wonderful chawan my friend Angela Rogers made especially for my cowboy chabako set. The glass boot will hold the damp white chakin (cloth for cleaning the teabowl). I look forward to taking it along on a day-trip to the country soon.

Teabowl by Angela Rogers

"Happy Trails to you."