slowly things are falling into place.
kilns are being fired and built. pots are being thrown, fired, sold, and smashed.
next to firing the japanese style wood kilns called anagamas there is little in life that I want to do. sure its work but if you don't like getting dirty, processing wood (collecting, chopping, cutting, stacking, unstacking, stacking, burning), starting fires, cleaning shelves and pottery...
then go do something else.
wood fired ceramics is not for you.
we are process oriented people. first and foremost. its process. all else comes from that. also make no mistake. practice never makes perfect. but it does help a lot.

i am a maker.

life is what you make.

life is good.

I posted some drawings and sketches I had on file and added some new clay activity on my |drobnock.blogspot.com|blog as well. Things are moving and spring is on us. The warm weather means outside work is to commence soon. I will be documenting more drawings and sketches soon. So check back!

Well hello. If you check out my blog you'll notice that dis spite of the work I currently have displayed on this site that there is much that I haven't eluded to on the good ol' drobnock.com yet about what it is that I do. One thing that I haven't advertised (as there is only one video at the moment) is a little thing called Youtube. Now the event horizon that is youtube is not new to me, but I have not been one to try my hand at cinematography. To be honest I have, for the most part, abhorred and dodged cameras my whole life. Yet I posted a small video that was filmed by my dad on youtube and instead of posting the link for it here I will give you a link that was discovered by him today (Jan 9 2011), Yashanghai. This should be way more informational than just giving you my youtube link because there are quite a few videos dealing with bits of anagama information. Enjoy!

Now, forgive my ignorance on the topic of written Asiatic language, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that this a Japanese or Chinese site but as to what they are really all about I just don't know (if you read this and have more info on the language or the website feel free to contact |drobnock@gmail.com|me and I will give the correct info regarding this).

People and things come and go. What remains for me is clay.

There is a certain unexplainable urge to make objects for ritual in daily use. The morning coffee cup, that mixing bowl for cherry pits, things like the special china our grandmother keeps for those special tea and biscuit affairs; that category is where I want my wares to fall.
I have used most every type of firing to explore surface and clay body. Electric cone 6, natural gas soda cone 11 reduction, propane sodium burrito cone 9 reduction, propane and natural gas oxidation, updraft, down draft, and cross draft what have you but, what has always stuck with me when viewing all other wares is: 'Man, You know what? That would look way better fired in an anagama (."

I was just standing in my kitchen a night or two ago and I was just staring, maybe at the dirty dishes, maybe at nothing at all, and I started to chuckle. Just about every piece of ceramic ware that I use is wood or soda fired. It kind-of blew me away for a minute. Never did I ever think that I would be in this so deep. It just happened. I can seriously step back and look back into 8 years of dedication. The only other thing I have cared that much about was the trombone from 4th grade to high school. Funny too, 'cause this is just the beginning. I have some heavy time and energy into this as my life. Making functional wares. Wood fired and what have you. This is just the beginning of me and my pots. That's the most inspiring thing that I have done for myself is inadvertently (as I fell into making ceramics I gave up a track to becoming an industrial designer) becoming a grass roots industrial designer with a BFA in ceramics and printed imagery. Nuts.