Xander Rijkee

A Pingsdorf pitcher as a medieval hand sanitizer…

#medieval #reenactment #livinghistory #pottery #historicalceramics #history #experimentalarcheology

Go Martha!

Pilgrims horns drying in the sun…

These were sold in great quantity to pilgrims from the 12th century onward. They are not really musical instruments, more “noise make toys” but they do that very well!

I made a few of the very early ones and the spiral ones are 15-16th century

#medieval #pottery

Thanks!

Impressive to see them all together!

We all do our part!

Idk… I think we need more DIY, non-perfect music…

Thank you!

A little tune for my birthday…

Played on my DIY Talharpa… the tune is called Långdans Från Sollerön

#talharpa #tagelharpa #jouhikko #swedishfolkmusic #scandi #medieval #livinghistory

Please don’t perpetuate the “this will be over in 4 years” narrative… for one… you cannot afford to wait 4 years. Second, they will never concede defeat

Tea and teaware

Making product photos for tea and teaware. Not a process I particularly enjoy… I prefer drinking tea and making pots… but it must be done

This is a reduction ash glazed bowl and a purple bud red tea

#tea #pottery #teaware #ceramics #gongfucha #teabowl #productphotography

Patterns…

When your drying rack is full but stuff needs to go into the kiln soon, it is very fortunate to be able to spam one’s mother’s kitchen table!

#pottery #ceramics #craft #clay

Very nice!

Thank you! I experimented a lot… people often don’t believe it isn’t reduction… (but the glaze is completely different in my gas kiln)

One thing I found is that it matters a lot where your ash comes from. This is 60% oak 40 % trimmings from willow/birch/alder etc (so lots of bark)

Thanks!

Two gaiwans on a workbench

My version of builders tea 😁

These Gaiwans were glazed with a simple ash glaze and fired to cone 10 in oxidation

#gaiwan #tea #gongfucha #pottery #ceramics #builderstea

I don’t understand vases…

This one turned out well but it mostly reminds me of the importance of having a deep understanding of the functional criteria of what you make.

I have that for teaware… but not for vases

#pottery #craftmanship #craft #ceramics #porcelain

Teapot with wooden handle and cups

Side handle teapot with cups

I made this a long time ago but am still in love with the natural color of the clay

A wooden handle feels very natural and helps with focus, but they take a lot of time to make

#tea #gongfucha #pottery #ceramics #meditation

Yes… pretty much… my universal answer was “it depends…”

I design my glazes for the effect they have on texture / mouthfeel of the tea… this one was a wildcard, chosen for aesthetics, and the texture turned out to be horrid… so… not usable for tea

It is… but a glaze that is designed for tea enhances the texture / mouthfeel… the texture was horrible and hardly any of the fragrance was left…

Experiments fail…

I made this gaiwan… I love how it looks and feels… but the glaze is horrible for tea 😬

Back to the drawing board…

#tea #gongfucha #ceramics #pottery #gaiwan

Fair enough… but I don’t think that is my mission. I only want to create things that add some value to the world… I can do that with cups, bowl and side handles… not so much with gongfu cha pots…

Nice work… gaiwans are hard!

I don’t often make gongfu cha teapots… you can’t really beat Zisha after all… but sometimes I do it anyway…

Both cups and pot are glazed with shino and reduction fired to cone 12

#tea #pottery #ceramics #gongfucha #shino

Teabowl in a winter setting with flowers

Tea bowl during a winter tea meditation… I usually make bowls for regular use when drinking tea, but sometimes it is nice to have a unique piece for a private moment

Fired in reduction to come 12 with “tree bark” effect emphasised by iron oxide and simple ash glaze on the inside

#pottery #tea

😁 yes! I will post some! Not from this firing specifically, but I fire regularly so there will be some pictures of the shino and ash glazes soon!

Most of my pottery gets fired to cone 12 reduction… that is quite hot, but it allows me to make glazes of simple things like wood ash, kaolin and quartz without anything else…

Here my home made gas kiln is nearly there 1270’C ish

#pottery #gaskiln #ceramics #ashglaze

My sculpting days are mostly over… but a throwback is nice sometimes!

(I threw the teapot on a potters wheel… the lid doesn’t come off but otherwise it is functional)

#ceramics #pottery #sculpture #gongfucha #tea

there can be fear too... I vividly fear boredom, a situation where i have to pay attention to something utterly uninteresting causes me physical pain, and I definitely fear those situations, because you can't get out without even more pain so you just sit there, suffering... I am terrified of that