About ourselves

Did you write the quote at the end of your email? I love it!

Stephanie, East of Rochester, NY We had something like 120 inches of snow this past winter. My back still hurts from all that shoveling. John

Marianne, it seems you and i are the only ones in Continental Europe. I live about 25km southeast of Vienna, Austria, not quite accross the border from Switzerland ;-). Where in Switzerland do you live?

I learned pottery many years ago in the US, where i lived for 20 years. I have been back in Austria again almost 20 years now. I have my own little workshop here, well, everything else about it you can read in my homepage below (which is dreadfully outdated, but...).

Monika

-- Monika Schleidt snipped-for-privacy@schleidt.org

if you wish to write me a mail, remove the number from my user name

Hi Monika!

I think we have corresponded a while ago about something. I seem to remember that lovely workshop of your's!

I love to show kids how to do pottery. My teacher and the gal who shares her studio both teach kids, so I often see kewl projects my "tageskind" and other visiting kids can try.

I am in Zurich. Not too far away, but not exactly next door, either :-D

Very glad to meet you, Monica! Let's stay in touch!!

Marianne

I'm an electrical engineer who worked in the auto industry, then went back to school to learn bioengineering and worked for many years in hearing research. This was basic research stuff (electrophysiology of sensory cells, etc), which involved non-human subjects. One of my main ongoing projects there was "evoked potentials" software that allows you to tell what an animal can hear via brainwave recording, since it was a major chore to train them to respond behaviorally.

I have only been involved with pottery for a few years. I find it really exciting because there is always something new to learn. I love to experiment and "invent" things... even if someone has already "been there, done that", I still get a thrill from finding my own way.

I do only handbuilding of various kinds, and my kiln is a tiny home-built electric using silicon carbide elements. I plan to add a home-built computerized controller soon.

Nothing I do is "production", just family gifts and stuff for the house.

I had been meaning for a while to write a simple glaze analysis program for my own educational purposes, and dkat's work in that area finally inspired me to get to it. I'll be glad to share my program also, as soon as I get it to a point I am happy with. (Yep, as a kid I never let my mommy see my coloring until it met my masterpiece standards.) Probably a couple more weeks yet.

Best regards,

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

Home of DaqGen, the FREEWARE signal generator

An Online Friend asked me how I came to study pottery in Mashiko, Japan. This is what I replied:

. Not counting my early experiences as a kid, digging up my own clay, I become interested in pottery during undergrad at the U of Central Mich. Was too busy trying to get a degree to raise a family to take time and study pottery at the time. When I met my wife Jean in 1983, I looked her up because of the note she posted on the Zen center bulletin board, looking for a partner to go square and folk dancing with. This caught my eye, because it was out of character for your average Minnesota zen student, who my potter friend Dirk describes as being "about a quart low on blood."

The first thing Jean asked me was if I was a potter. I said no, I was studying wood sculpture, but I was always interested in pottery. She said I looked like a potter and reminded me of her friend Dirk. When I met Jean, her apartment was full of MacKenzie's work and Dirk's work. Jean also took me to an import store, Yamato Imports, Downtown Minneapolis, where I was able to handle the work of Hamada and Shimaoka and also see the wood block prints of Shiko Munakata. She also took me to visit MacKenzie's pottery in 1983, not long after I came back from the monastery in Iowa.

Jean introduced Dirk to MacKenzie's first graduate student (Horning), after Dirk came back from the East coast, where he ran a bookstore for the Himalayan Institute in NYC and learned pottery to make their cast formed netty pots (a sort of Aladdin's lamp used by Yoga people for cleaning the sinuses.) When he came back to Omaha in

1981, he told Jean he was really interested in the work of Shoji Hamada. Jean told him that he should meet Jerry Horning at Creighton University, the head of the ceramics department there, because he studied with MacKenzie, who was the leading proponent of Hamada in America. So, from the beginning, I was always interested in Dirk Gillespie, Warren MacKenzie, Tatsuzo Shimaoka and Shoji Hamada.

After I studied with our zen teacher for 7 years, I began studying pottery. My initial plan was to study at my friend's pottery for a year and study Japanese too, and then study at Shimaoka's for a year. My friend's pottery situation was not satisfactory, so I went to Shimaoka's after a couple months and ended up studying with him for over 3 years. We decided to stay in Mashiko early on, when we found our modern house and studio, which is very rare in Mashiko. Jean's single request for a house was that it had a flush toilet and not a pit toilet. We have that here. Dirk and I both picked up work at the wheel very quickly. I have always attributed this to his yoga mediation and my zen meditation. I was also lucky to be able to collect and study good pots for 7 years before touching wet clay.

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It took me a long time to send in my Jerome Travel Study grant report because I am still being effected by it, but I did sent it in last month. I include it below.

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My travel study grant allowed me to come to Mashiko to study pottery and do a three year apprenticeship with the National Living Treasure Tatsuzo Shimaoka. I was introduced and recommended to Shimaoka by his friend Warren MacKenzie. Few foreigners have had the chance to study with Shimaoka for three years. I was able to study all aspects of traditional wood fired pottery, from the processing of clay and glazes, working on the wheel, glazing, firing a large complex Noborigama climbing kiln and preparing work after it is unloaded. I had a graduation show in the spring of 2003 at the Tsukamoto gallery, the best gallery in Mashiko, which included my wife Jean Shannon showing her monotypes and new woodblock prints.

I have built my own wood fired kiln which can be seen here:

and have opened my own studio and am making my ownwork in Mashiko. I am also working on a book drawing on my experiencesthat the travel/study grant enabled. The book is related to zenpractice, craft and the importance of craft in the 21st century. Below is a short bio I sent to the International Wood Fire Conference in Goshiwara, Aomori Japan, that I am presenting at in June. My talk will be titled: "From MingeiSota To Mashiko."

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I was born in Osaka, lived my first 18 months in Sakai, and grew up in Michigan in the U.S.A. I moved to Minnesota in 1983 to study Soto Zen Buddhism with Dainin Katagiri Roshi. At my teacher's funeral service in

1990, I was impressed with the traditional Hassidic Jewish pine coffin, of nailess construction, that his body lay in. I decided at his funeral to become a potter, and to make funeral urns with the same heart/mind as the Hassidic coffin maker.

Consumption is death and creating is life. Human beings are by nature creative. We cannot be happy through consuming only. And the best means of communication that transcends time, place, and culture, is through art and craft. Creativity can bring understanding, peace and harmony to the world.

I still have those DT2821 boards sitting in a closet gathering dust. If you ever want to be wild and crazy and experiment with one, let me know.

Donna

Thank you! I like it a lot myself. :)

I don't honestly know just where it came from, whether it's from within or if I just picked it up somewhere along the way. I've carried it around for a long time - use it as my signature on my email messages.

What I DO know is that it's how I try to live - take each moment and use it to the best advantage - make what I can of every day. I'm a continual work in progress and I have no immediate intentions of ever being finished.

I used to write some - not so much anymore.

Take care,

Lori

Well behaved women rarely make history..... (another one of my favorites - )

Wow, talk about coincidence! I've been trying to locate a DT2821 for someone in Australia. (He saw that I have DT2821 drivers for my software.) He needs the specific model DT2821-G-8DI. Any chance that you might have one of those? I have no idea what he's willing to pay, but you may have the market cornered!

Best regards,

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

Home of DaqGen, the FREEWARE signal generator