Boozin' it

I dropped off my first review shipment today. I left twelve pieces, the photos here are three of them, snapped in this mornings manic photo frenzy. I'm actually pretty happy with the photo above of the oval.

This photo has a little too much reflection on it. It washes the color out a little.

This one came out really sweet too. I stopped at the camera shop in Concord and the bulbs I need are 20$ a piece and I just can't swing it, especially with my new mop purchase. So I stopped at Lowes and got some full spectrum compact florescents to try. If they don't cut it then I will have to spring for the other bulbs.

So after a pretty crazy day of unloading, analyzing, pricing, packing and driving and a aftermath of carnage at my house as a result, I am eating some dinner and drinking a very large martini with some fresh mango in it. I call it a martini, but it's just vodka in a glass with mango. My friend, locally famous Bob King is playing tonight at the Common Man. So I will try to have only this one martini so I can go listen later. Good night and good luck.

New and old/new

These pots are still from my last firing. The pot above is the direction I feel pulled in now.

This pot with the leaves is a direction I was working on before I changed course (again). I really like it, and I like the sprigging. Maybe I can figure a way to incorporate both into the same pot.

These tumblers above are part of that same last direction. I had already had all these pots sprigged, and so glazed the the way I was working before, but now I wish had tried some with the new style I am working on. Oh well.

My kiln is almost to temp. I won't be glazing or making any pots today. I want to see how this batch comes through the fire before I glaze the next one. I'm still learning something from each successive firing that I try and pass on to the next. I have to find out today, but I think I might need to put some serious thought and work into designing a booth. I might need a photo of it to apply to the fair Nov.1. I've studied a lot of other potters' booths trying to get a feel for what to do, and what I've learned is that everyone does it differently. I have definitely formed some opinions of what NOT to do. I'm a little overwhelmed at the prospect.

I just figured out something pretty cool I thought I'd share. I regularly have trouble with the top shelf of my kiln being cooler than the middle. Often close to a cone. The bottom is a little behind as well. I believe the main reason the top is so far behind is because of my vent. I have three tiny holes drilled into my kiln lid where the air draws in, and then exits at the bottom of the kiln. I believe that air draw is enough to keep the top shelf cooler. I could solve this by putting a blank shelf over my top layer, but stacking doesn't always work out so conveniently.

I had the idea last firing, that if I removed a peep plug from the center of the kiln, that the air would then draw through that peep hole instead of the top holes. I tested this with a match and my assumption was correct. I decided that when I reached cone 5 this firing I would pull a center peep and test this. I am blown away as I went to check and ALL THREE cone packs are cone 6 down and cone 7 up. I then became concerned about the kiln making it through the soak without overfiring, and so I skipped the last five minutes (I had only programmed 8), re-programmed the ramp/cool again (quickly before I lost too much heat) and was off and running again. I wasn't expecting this level of success with this approach. See woodfirers! There's a lot of excitement and drama in electric too!

I hate guitar circle

So this is what I spent today doing. Everything was really way too soft to finish yet (at least according to how I usually work) but I didn't want to make any new pots today. I have found that creating tall ovals with altered bases is difficult because I can not get my hand inside easily to attatch the floor and smooth inside. I'll have to give this some thought because I like the form. I did realize that I probably need to wait until I have attached the floor before I alter the rim shape to give my hand more room. So, I guess that's that.

I'm off to my guitar thing again. Sick of going really. Everyone takes it too seriously now. Like we're a band or something. I thought we were just a bunch of people hanging out and having fun and it's way less fun having it feel like school. I've actually been shushed a couple of times while myself and someone were talking. I'm not kidding. I think that's when I first started to metally back off the whole thing. I probably only go about every three weeks or so now. I have done, and still do way too many things in my life that I have HAD to do. Why choose to do something now that I don't have to do, and which makes me feel like I'm twelve again?

If no one hears a tree grow in the woods, should it keep growing?

I've been feeling a little frustrated about my blog. I thought it would be fun to write and an opportunity to share my work with family, friends, and hopefully strangers or other potters I might hope to meet someday. The sad reality is that it doesn't seem to be the case. My wonderful husband Adam (and my friend Ella from work) are my only constant readers. I've definitely become aware that I am sending this out into space. It's like this little sattelite up among the stars. It's pretty happy it's in space, but like Pinocchio, it just wants to be a real blog.So what do I do when what I am doing is meant to be shared and no one wants a bite?

Well, my first feeling is one of discouragement and the thought to just can it. What's the point? But, I don't have a web-site yet and I feel the need for some kind of prescence on the web. Perhaps I just post a few photos with my contact info and call it good? That doesn't exactly seem like the nature of a blog though. Should I be annoyed with my family and friends for their lack of interest? People have their own lives and I was told when I was little that the world doesn't revolve around me, and it may just be true. Should I be disappointed that out of the dozens and dozens and dozens of pottery blogs out there, many in their third and fourth years, that my little six-month-old pottery blog has not picked up national interest? Yah I'm disappointed, because my Mom did always tell me I was special, but I'm not foolish. I know I am but a small speckle of specialness that exists in the pottery blog world. So what to do?

Well, my wonderful and supportive husband Adam has asked me to not give it up, because he reads every day hoping I have written something new. So if only for Adam alone, I will continue. I do have to ask myself if it is worth writing if only for myself. If no one reads, is there a reason to type these words? I suppose the answer is if the act of creating is enough even if I am my only audience. I think I'd have to answer no. Part of my pleasure is imagining the response of another human being. And the less I can imagine that, the less fun it seems.

But for now there is Adam every day, and for now I guess that's good enough for me.

*disclaimer-the above information isn't entirely correct. In the interest of self-pity and writing a more interesting and succinct post I have left out the fact that my father has read several times, my mother twice, my brother twice and my sister once. I'm sure that these glaring omissions of facts may be pointed out to me otherwise.

Seeing spots

This is a detail of the handle on the pot below. You can't really see in the photo, but the handle is covered with wax. I had trouble with the handles cracking when exposed to ANY air while the pot was drying, and remembered reading about waxing parts of pots to slow the drying. So far so good.

Porcelain oval baker. I am having major problems with the handles on these cracking. I've got them tightly wrapped in plastic, but any exposure to air and crack!! Going to be challenging drying them.

Little teeny tiny test pots ready to go into my test kiln with the teapots.


Vases, about 10" high. I really like the way these came out. I'll have to keep posting photos of my pots in this leatherhard stage so you can see some nice pots. Most will not survive my glazing "skills". But they are beautiful now.