Salt Kiln

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All loaded.  The majority of these pots aren't even mine.  I have 10 dinner plates, 10 luncheon plates and 2 animal jars in there.  All the other pots are Jen Mecca's and a few folks from Clayworks.  I have been putting this firing off forever b/c I didn't want to make a whole load of pots for the salt kiln.  I did have the order for the plates though so there was the need to fire.  It's been about a year since I've fired this kiln.  It was nice to get outside and load.  The day wasn't too cold and the sun was shining.  I did make sure to light the burners and do a good all around check before I got started.  Everything seems to be in working order.  I'll preheat over night and fire in earnest tomorrow.img_0287

Routine

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pizza(Pizza from Sunday nite.  Yummy)

I've been thinking about 'Routine' a lot this week.  It's something that comes up for me often in my head and I go over and over and over what I think I want my normal daily routine to be and how to get to the place where I am living that routine.  I bet if I looked back in my journals, I'd find in a two week period an entry that had a timeline in it that looked like this:

6:30 get out of bed
Journal and draw till 7:30 with tea.
Meditate (15-30 minutes) or exercise /maybe yoga.
Breakfast.
Check email and blog.
9:30 or 10  out to work.
1pm lunch then short nap.  Tea and chocolate.
2-5 work.

and so on.  Now I don't have much of a problem with any of this.  Other than getting up at 6:30.  I'd really like to get up at 6.  Presently I get up at 7am.  I am working my way back, slowing.  Instead of forcing a big change, I'm going to work back in 15 or 30 min. intervals until I am getting up at 6.  That may take another 2 months.

I get discouraged with my work week b/c it seems that more and more I am having meetings to attend.  Most of these have to do with the Arts Council.  So I'd like to have a weekly routine too.  This would figure in meetings, grocery shopping, trip to the landfill, postoffice etc.

Do I sound a bit anal in wanting all this?  Is it important?  I mean it must be a little bit since I think about it so much.  I feel sort of stupid putting it out here.  You know sometimes I have things in my head that seem like a big deal, but once I speak them out loud or write them down I say, "Man that's not so important.  Why did I spend so much time worrying about that?"

Another part of this is just wanting to spend my time in a way that feels good to me.  That currently means turning off the television, not checking my email 10 times a day (regulating computer time), and making good use of my studio time.

I've started making a list of 3 things I'd like to accomplish in the day.  Usually they are simple and direct.  Today I have:
Set up photo shoot with Holly.
Load kiln.
Order flagstones.

So nothing huge, but if I get those things done today along with some work in the shop. I'll be happy.

Well enough of this for now.  I must get on with whatever is next...

Yunomi Making

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Not so great of a production, too much background noise.  Kiln clicking and radio.  Still this is fun.  Maybe I'll learn how to overdub some music or something.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=617_1-DsF8k

Wonky Dish

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Sarah helped me shoot this video this evening.  I tend to do things too fast when I demo or when I'm being watched. I'm gonna put this up anyhow just for the fun of it.  I downloaded a new software program today to help me compress my videos and they do upload to YouTube faster.  So hopefully I'll get better at this and put some more things up as we go.  Thanks for watching.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXv3BeDntPM

Test Glazes

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My tests all fired well, now I just have to decide if I like them and if so how to use them.  Here a a couple close ups of the tiles, I am happy with those reds/red orange.  And I really think that celadon type color has potential.  The metallic dots are from some copper carb. that I sprinkled on the wet base glaze.

[gallery link="file" columns="2"]

Party!

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Last night Sarah and I went to a surprise birthday party for our friend Missi.  Missi and Sarah go way back and have had many adventures together.  It was a fun time.

Sarah and Missi

Oh and guess where the party was?  The Thirsty Beaver Bar on Central Ave. Charlotte, NC.

Thirsty Beaver

Finally a Video (I hope)

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[youtube uRScuOhFrYU]
Not to be outdone by Brandon I set my mind to get this video up today. I could have done this in about 5 mins on Blogger (plus upload time) It's taken me damn near all afternoon to get this going and it's not that great of a pot!! Ha, well if this works (I had a message saying I'd exceeded my CPU quota a moment ago), then I'll post more next week.

Video test

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[youtube rnaWQ7HUypA]


I am trying to figure out how to put up videos here on my site. This WP stuff is more complex than Blogger, or so it seems. So why am I here? Well I just am. Anyhow I now know how to put YouTube videos up. Not bad, it only took my an hour to sift through a bunch of info and try various plugins. This one uses the bracket method. (if you care to know).

Now what i want to know is this...can I just upload video from my camera card? How? I've tried a few things and I was running into the problem of the file size being too large. So after 40 min of chat with my host I learned how to edit my code and increase the php size of my posts and uploads (are you asleep yet?) So that piece of code has been changed to allow 75M as opposed to 2M. Still I can't just upload it directly (Blogger spoiled me). What a pain? Anyhelp from WP users is welcome.
For now I'm gonna upload to YouTube and then go from there to here. (That seems like waaaaay too much to ask).

Thanks to Matt and Doug for this funny clip.

Skeeter and Chewed Phone

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This is the first mosquito I've seen this year.  It's a big one.

mosquito

I must have dropped my phone when I got out of the truck yesterday because I later found Karma trying to make a call on it out in the yard.  It looks pretty rough and has no back plate but still works and after a little prying around I was able to get the charger to plug in.  front phoneback

I've got all the tests in the small kiln this morning.  I hope I get some good results.

Kiln Prep., Tests, and Bread

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After getting home today from the A.C. I scraped kiln shelves and mixed wadding for the salt kiln.  I'm going to try and load tomorrow unless the weather is really wet.

I also mixed up several tests for the next earthenware firing.  These are all my clear base with different additons for color.  I'm going to shoot from some new deco ideas including some glaze trailing.   I have a couple reds here that I'm anxious to see what they look like fired.

tests

Just pulled this loaf of bread out about 3 minutes ago.  Better run. Time to get the rest of dinner going.

Fresh out

Bowling for Dollars

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The Arts Council had it's annual Bowling for Dollars fundraiser today.  We had 252 bowls donated by potters and folks paid $15  to come in, pick a bowl and have a soup lunch.  Tickets sold out last week and the crowd came early to line up.

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Peggy and Faye are the soup ladies, ladling out soup for a couple hours.  I am the 'soup runner', the kitchen is upstairs so I have to bring the big stockpots of soup down to them when needed.  I got my exercise in today.img_0216This is a great fundraiser for us.  We have a fantastic kitchen crew who work two days making the soups, desserts and bread.  Lots of other volunteers chip in too so the day runs smoothly.  Thanks everyone who was there today and thanks to the potters for donating bowls.

Wed.

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goat and fish decoI'm ka-put.

Did lots of deco today and finished off some jars and bowls.  Almost another load ready.  I have to stop and get the salt kiln ready to fire though.  I've been putting that off and I just need to get it done.  So tomorrow after volunteering at the Arts Council during the first part of the day I'm going to get ready to load.

I've got some ideas for glaze trailing on the earthenware.  I'm really wanting to jump into that whole thing, testing etc. But it's gonna have to wait till next week I guess.

Le Oinker

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Cup by Gary RithWell look what's arrived at our house...a Gary Rith mug complete with pig on the handle.  What a treat!  I just feel like oinking everytime I take a sip of my tea.  You know it's kind of like I have to communicate with that little guy. (His name is Bacon)  Thanks Gary!  I'm making you a special goat mug and it will be on it's way soon.

Oink, oink

New Pots

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[gallery link="file"]

Click on any thumbnail to view a larger image.

So it was a good firing as far glaze and such goes.  There's a lot of white on the pots though and that's one thing I'm trying to work out.  I need more layers, depth, and possibily color.  I mean if I'm gonna do this low fire work I may as well do it right.  So I am thinking about moving away some from this off white base slip to a more tinted straw color or something.  Actually I'd like a layer of each with some texture in there and some dirty smudgey-ness.  It will come around I guess, I'm just gonna have to keep working.  Unfortunately today is full of meetings, appointments, and teaching, so no studio time for me.

I'll get most of these pots photographed individually and put up on the Etsy site later on this week.

Thanks for looking.

The Graveyard Book

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coverI just finished The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman this morning.

I almost read this non stop. Well, I stopped when I had to.  It's a story about a child who's family is murdered when he is an infant.  The child (who is named by the dead,Nobody Owens) comes to live in a near by cemetery and grows up there into adolescence.  He lives among the 'ghosts' of the dead, not really scary ghosts.  Well not all.  Anyhow it's about growing up, being alive, struggle, and love.  There's adventure and lessons learned.  You can read HERE what Gaiman said about the book soon after he finished it.

Silas is Noboby's guardian.  Here are some words from the book that stuck with me.

Silas said, "Out there, the man who killed your family  is, I believe, still looking for you, still intends to kill you."
Bod shrugged.  "So?" he said. "It's only death. I mean, all of my best friends are dead."
"Yes." Silas hesitated.  "They are. And they are, for the most part, done with the world.  You are not.  You're alive, Bod.  That means you have infinite potential.  You can do anything, make anything, dream anything.  If you change the world, the world will change.  Potential.  Once you're dead, it's gone.  Over.  You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name.  You may be buried here, you may even walk.  But that potential is finished."

Good stuff.
Well I'm off to check on the kiln.  Hopefully I'll have some pots up here in an hour or so.  Check back soon.

Coming Soon...

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New pots out of the kiln Tuesday, so check back in to see some images.
They'll be hitting the Etsy shop later in the week.

On a side note , I had to delete a few older posts that were getting spammed to death for some reason.  I thought I had a plugin that was stopping that but after inspection saw that I had deactivated it.  All is well now.