Viewing page 17 of 75

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Takaezu - 1 - 12

decided the best thing for me to do-- I was teaching, of course. I was able to teach because I had gone to the university. I'd audited, not taken for credit, because I was working. And I learned from Claude Horan, who was head of the ceramics department at the University of Hawaii, who was very patient. I joined his class, but we were in business together. He bought a business and I was working with him. Called the Hawaiian Potters Guild. He didn't make money. I never got paid, but we worked very hard, but got good training and was able to teach.

Then when I realized that having had 75 students at that time, this is a dead end in a way, that I should go on, you know. Because to be able to give more to the students, I had to get more to myself. I realized that. And people said, "What are we going to do when you leave?" I had this job at the Y taking care of the kiln and having the class and working day and night and working part-time in the elementary school to save enough money to go to Cranbrook really.

Q: How did the word Cranbrook even enter your world?

Takaezu: O.K. Cranbrook-- there was a woman who went to the University of Hawaii with me. She went to Cranbrook and mentioned Cranbrook. My teacher went to Ohio State. Claude Horan went to Ohio State and he wanted me to go to Ohio State. But when I saw Maja Grotell's work--