man the last couple weeks have been nuts! family in from out of town for thanksgiving, always a good time but LOUD with all the younguns lol... and this week i've been a glazing, firing fool. i've got a booth at the local christmas stroll on saturday and i've been trying to get as much stuff ready as i can. so far this week i'm on glaze load #3! i have time for one more and hopefully i'll be able to fit the rest of my stuff in the last load. keep those fingers crossed! can't take too much more glazing right now anyway, my shoulder feels like it's about ready to fall off and i'm glazing pots in my dreams!
With any luck i'll be able to spend friday at my wheel, it's been a couple weeks since i've worked w/ actual wet clay and i'm getting itchy. I do have to take pictures of all my stuff though so in all likelyhood that's what i'll be doing on friday. so i should have some pictures to post soon. i need to get to work on my website too, but that'll have to wait till next week at the soonest. i'll get it all done one day, but for now i'm just doing the best that i can.
I've been working w/ a manual kiln and it's just cooling off too fast to get the results i want from my glazes. i'd love to be able to catch it at the end of the firing cycle and add in a bit of a soak at least, but w/o fail i always miss it. i'm lucky it i make sure the kiln sitter did it's job. the grumpy baby's crying, my son is into somethign he shouldn't be which happens ALOT, my daughter needs help w/ her homework, i just plain forgot about it... the list of distractions goes on and on. not least is the fact that it's about 3*F and falling outside right now and my kiln is in our unheated, uninsulated garage. BURRRrrr.... we have a 3 bay garage and it's supposedly all mine, but the bikes, toys, boxes, and tools have taken over at least 1/2 the space. so on the honey-do list is putting in a wall up and insulating 1 bay for my studio. and install a kiln controller and envirovent on my kiln. can't wait... right now i'm set up in teh spare bedroom but it's tiny and just not cutting it and i'm spilling out into the dining room and kitchen. not to mention the kiln is down 1 1/2 flights of stairs from the house. i really need my studio...
so much for a quick break and getting back to work. i can barely keep my eyes open. guess working till 1am all week is catching up w/ me. i'm off to bed!
Kim...greetings from Alberta..
ReplyDeleteWow, you have been busy..yes, getting it all accomplished with a young family is a wonderful challenge. I had a sale last weekend, and on Friday midnight I unloaded (cause it was toooo hot at noon!) to take pieces to the Saturday part of our sale! -nothing like hot pots!- I can relate to the unheated garage, cool temperatures etc. and manual kiln. I finally have a pyrometer which helps monitor the firing, but one still needs to watch it at the peak and do the soak etc. by manually adjusting the dials. It is a good lesson in patience and knowing your kiln. and yes...it does mean being out there in the wee hours, in the cold, in the dark trekking to the garage, to see the firing through...:-). My studio is in the basement, so I put my pieces out a window, go around and take them to the kiln in the unheated, uninsulated garage. We had a warm Fall this year so that was easy and even last week taking my work to the sale (two houses away) was a snap! Today, at minus 24celcius, that would be a complete drag,so I am thankful for that good weather. I would be happy to communicate with you via email about your manual firings and cone six glazes, if you like. In the meantime..happy potting!
Cheers, Trish from Alberta (still working on time to set up a blogsite!)
hi trish, putting your pots out the window is a great idea, sounds like something i'd do lol! too bad i doesn't work as good on the stairs, if only i could drop it all off the top ledge... will definitely take you up on the email offer, could use a sounding board on occasion and ^6 is new to me. my husband's eyes glaze over after a minute or two :D
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