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I will hold my first Emil’s Pottery Studio sale on Saturday and Sunday September 17 at my studio. I normally hold theses events at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where I have been a scientist and educator for most of my life, but I thought it would be good for my work to  branch out and…

WOW what a year of 2020 was and 2021 started with a bang as well. The Covid19 pandemic still rages and new virus variants jitter health care professionals, scientists and the general public. We are in for a long ride and although vaccination will certainly make an impact, I am really worried about the next…

“Do you have a website? Where can one buy your pieces?” I often get these questions and my answer has always been that I do not have a website, but I am in the process to get one soon. I have always been and I am still very hesitant about having an Emil’s Pottery Studio…

When ever I travled or lived for a short time in Japan, I always was uneasy about my very limited ability to speak the country’s language. I had learned to read and write Hiragana and Katakana, but not Kanji yet my vocabulary and my ability to compose sentences was very rudimentary. I was always embarrassed…

In the early 1990 I found a high fire glaze recipie in a ceramics magazine that I wanted to try. The glaze was originally developed in the 17th century in China using porcelain clay. The glaze was reformulated by an American potter (Richard Fairbanks) and its formulation was published in the ceramic magazine. I remember…

I had my tickets to Tokyo. I had my rental car reservation and I made arrangements to pick my WiFi device at my hotel at Narita when the first news arrived about a new virus that apparently was rather unpredictable in its pattern of spread and its physiological effects on people. More importantly, in early…

In contrast to October where we had only few days of sunshine, November was very dry. I would often wake up at night with a sky full of bright stars. Early in the morning the sky would become dark red announcing the wake of the day. My place sitting on a small hill was a…

Little by little, I turned the place into a functional living and working place. The house is still only one room but I made improvements that made the place much more cozy. A friend of Okudasan installed a new heater/AC, the old one was no longer working and also installed a Japanese ceiling lamp with…

While spending all this time on cleaning up, I experienced an incredible storm. Typhoon Hagibis, the most powerful typhoon in recent Japanese history swept through area. I was warned that the winds would be excessive. Mr. Nakamura, the chief of the district and responsible for coordinating any activities related to a potential disaster situation came…

The next morning I woke up to a beautiful sunrise, which somewhat eased my apprehension. Nevertheless, I was unsure about my situation. I realized how much work was ahead of me. Originally I imagined that I would come here to make pots, instead I realized that I needed to spend an enormous amount of time…