finally found the time last night to get my hands dirty again. didn't actually make anything, but did wedge up a bunch of reclaim clay. what i wouldn't give for a pug mill. i really don't like wedging. my husband had the job for a little while, i showed him how to cut and slam, but i ended up w/ all these little clay bits all over the garage. even on some of my glazed work that was headed into the kiln. seemed he was making a game out of how hard he could slam the clay together and how far the little bits would fly. i'm still cleaning bits off of the foundation walls. wedging last night got me thinking about the best way to reclaim clay. i just rewedge the wet stuff, but when it dries out and goes into a bucket to slake, i'm trying to figure out the best way to dry it out enough to wedge. i tried the blue jean leg thing and that's just messy and a real pain. next i made a trough out of hardware cloth and lined w/ denim and dumped the clay in that. works fine, still have to deal w/ the dripping water. now i'm thinking of a big plaster slab or bowl, or doing smaller batches using a couple bisqued trays. can't make up my mind. i'm leaning toward smaller batches, not sure about how to dry it out though.

we've been talking about everything i want to do in my new studio set up. i'm on a mission to get rid of as much dust as i possibly can. i'm going to put a vent hood in there to use when i'm making glazes to catch the dust generated there, and mop/clean after every clay session.

i've very excited about my new studio. i want to come up w/ a different look to my pottery and the new studio feels like a new fresh start. i've got a few ideas i want to explore and can't wait to get to work on it. i have some orders i have to fill first though and i'm doing nothing else until i can get those done. just can't seem to find the time, kids kids kids. more on that later...