Season's Greetings

Happy New Year

Bonne Annee

Prosit Neujahr

Felice anno nuovo

Akimashite Omedetto Gozaimas

Feliz Ano Novo

Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun

Autumn Photos

Autumn – the colors of autumn – the light in autumn – what a wonderful season! Every year I am so fascinated by the change of color. This year the colors were even more impressive than before. The sunlight has changed as well – it is no more that bright sunshine we had in summer – in the autumn light the plant colors reach another level.

Last Show for this Year: Clubs' Trophy 2009 in Veyrier near Geneva

14 Clubs invited were showing their best bonsai trees. The club with the best display could collect a check over €1000. Besides that Ikebana International was showing some Ikebana-displays.

The show was perfectly organized by the bonsai club léman.

On Sunday evening at the end of the show everybody seemed to be happy: the team from the bonsai club léman, the traders and the people who came to see the show.

Although I am coming from the Suisse-German part of Switzerland which is separatet from the French part by the "Röschtigraben" (Language-border) and the people from the German part of Switzerland are also called "Suisse-Toto" I have to admit that I got a completely different picture. I felt really at home from the very first moment and was well looked after by Nicolas and other members of the bonsai club léman. Although my spoken French is not that good and has to be reactivated I had a very good time. Thank you to all of you! Whenever the next Clubs' Trophy will take place – I will be there!

Some photos of the show:

Milan Klika & Vladislava Kuratkova

John Pitt (right) and customer

Some of my Kusamono in Autumn

A wonderful September has come to an end. We had a lot of sunshine, it was (too) warm for the season but we could enjoy.

I have taken some more photos of the plants which look fine at the moment:

Ash Glaze - Asche Glasuren

All the pots shown here have been coated with some kind of ash glaze:

At the moment I am testing different types of ash glaze for my TAKAHAMA pots. Wood or vegetable ashes have been used as glaze materials since antiquity.

You may get a beautiful glaze which is difficult to obtain with other materials.

A simple combination of three different materials can be the starting point. The question is how to combine them.

Ash glazes need high firing to cone 8 to cone 11. Fired in reduction (which I can't do) you may get broken surface texture which may be very attractive.

Ashes vary in composition and even the ash of one type of tree will vary, depending on the soil in which it grew.

That means: Testing, testing, testing and experimentation with the material available!

Exhibition Bonsai-Club Ticino in Lugano

Over the weekend I stayed in Lugano and attended the Exhibition of the Bonsai-club Tinicino. It was the first time that I showed my TAKAHAMA-pots in an exhibition. Before sales activities were restricted to the internet. Of course, this kind of selling the pots involves a lot more activities beforehand: wrapping and packing all the pots, loading the car, driving for 2 1/2 hours, unpacking everything there, staying in a hotel for two nights, paying a sales fee, and at the end of the show you do the whole thing once more. Quite a lot of effort!

But I have to admit that I really enjoyed these 2 1/2 days in Lugano, it was a well organized event, all the people involved in the organization were very friendly and there was a relaxed atmosphere.

And besides that I could also sell some of my pots I got quite a lot of very positive feedback.

I was a very wise decision to go to the Italian part of Switzerland!

Thank you Mario, thank you Nicola and thank you to all the others involved in organizing this event.

Pots – Shapes – Glazes – Texture

At the moment I am very busy in my ceramic-studio. Every day I have been working there – focusing on new shapes, testing glazes on different clay bodies. My Kusamono don't get so much attention, they have to be happy to get water whenever they need it.

There is also an ongoing dispute between the potter and the nursery man: what is the appropriate shape of a pot? I know from my own experience that the pots with a wider opening are the easiest when it comes to repotting. Some of the fast growing species can fill a pot in one season. But the potter also likes the pots which are narrower at the top. This dispute is not yet over!

Most of the time I mix my glazes myself, I am reading everything about glazes in order to find what I am looking for. I have some reliable glazes that I really like.

For me the ceramics from the SUNG-period in China represent some of the most beautiful masterpieces. The shapes were simple, the glaze excellent and the glaze harmonizes so well with the shape of the pots. The ancient Chinese were master potters, and their glazes were miraculous. I always envy the people who have a gas kiln and can reproduce (or at least try to reproduce them) some of these extraordinary glazes. For most of these old Chines Glazes (Celadons; Temmokus: Oil Spot, Hare's Fur, Tea Dust; Copper Reds) you do Reduction Firing – you have to have a gas kiln) and in my electric kiln I do Oxidation firing.

In the past I also applied new glazes on my pots – without testing beforehand – and sometimes the result made me very happy and sometimes I got very frustrated because I ruined the pots with that glaze.

Therefore I invest more time in testing now.

At the moment I produce (for the first time) a bigger quantity of similar pots: they vary not much in size but some have rivets, some haven't. But the texture and the glaze are different. I really like this shape although you have to keep in mind that repotting can become a tricky operation. Better use some slow-growing species! For my glaze testing this approach seemed better to me than use different shapes with different glazes – you can never really compare because another shape my need another texture and glaze. Some of the pots you can see here.

I want my pots to be more than a piece of fired clay – they should carry a bit of my soul and my customer should also feel the spirit of TAKAHAMA.