May Fire and the chocolate factory

I worked in a chocolate factory for the better part of 9 months.  During that period an idea was firmly planted in my brain.  The idea is not a new one, probably as old as the first blunt rock that was turned into a tool.  The idea is that we as humans find great pleasure in accomplishing tasks, making things, and enjoying the fruits of our labor with our friends, family, and whoever else is interested.  When a person is placed into an environment that reduces them to a cog in a machine, something awful happens.  The dynamic human spirit begins to die.  I have seen it in the faces of those who have remained in the factory much longer than they should.  Deadpan faces, marked by isolation and meaningless “widget” moving…  It is the kind of job that puts food on the plate, while the heart and mind is brushed into a corner to rot.  I quit that job in order to fire the shoshin kilns again in May.  It was a  four day firing, and all of us at Shoshin Studios came together in pursuit of work that is the antithesis of a factory.

It is one of the main reasons I choose to fire in this manner, (besides the sheer giddy joy that comes to me at unloading day).  Everything about the anagama runs in complete opposition to the vapid consumerism that exists in our modern ”throw away” world.  It is a powerful and beautiful thing.  I feel incredibly lucky to have stumbled upon it, and even luckier that I have found a group of friends that share my enthusiasm.  Is there a place for this kind of work in our increasingly static world??  I’d like to think so, but regardless my friends and I will continue to pursue it.  Even if that means I have to slug it out in the dank haunches of a factory from time to time.

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