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Workspace is frozen as usual. I have been spending more time than I wish scraping and shoveling snow, playing nurse to my wife(knee replacement surgery, Feb.), cleaning house, doing laundry, and taking care of granddaughter after school. Put three bowling leagues into that, and it really does not leave much more. How did I get it all done when working full time, and often til 10 at night?!!?

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For us Jan/feb have been warmer /dryer and sunny-I know for most thats not the case.

I have been able to dry pots outside in sun for weeks now

We need rain but its not happening.

Middle 60's to 70's every day

Unloading a few glaze fires midday today.

Mark

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This has been a tough winter, even in the mid-South (granted, this is nothing like what the Northeast US has experienced).  It is simply too cold in the studio to stay there and work on the wheel.  I am doing smaller, hand-built projects that take up little more than a lap tray or a small table in front of the fireplace...also taking time to experiment with details using under glaze.  I have been doing more writing than usual and working more on how best to market my projects.

 

-Paul

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Well I am pretty lucky because we have a mild winter. Your post got me to thinking how do you raku when there is a foot of snow on the ground?  I would hate having to go a few months without a raku fix.

 

I am preparing for a june show and doing a series of ravens wearing shoes. gotta get moving - only two are finished.  Need to get more orgainzed on planning the pieces rather than going to the studio and piddling with whatever amuses me at the moment.  rakuku

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Well I am pretty lucky because we have a mild winter. Your post got me to thinking how do you raku when there is a foot of snow on the ground?  I would hate having to go a few months without a raku fix.

 

I am preparing for a june show and doing a series of ravens wearing shoes. gotta get moving - only two are finished.  Need to get more orgainzed on planning the pieces rather than going to the studio and piddling with whatever amuses me at the moment.  rakuku

 

 

Oh, I SO know that problem!!! :lol:

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Surviving is a good discription.  A small misunderstanding in mid January caused the power company

to shut off the power which is a big deal in an all electric house.  I thought I'd use the time to clean the

house and studio and read alot.  But its hard to clean with gloves on whether you can feel your feet or not.

So last week I got everything paid up and waited for the surge of fresh power to light up the house, BUT

the power ranger looked in the breaker box first and saw that the interior cover was missing and refused

to turn anything back on.  You can't buy a 60 yr old interior breaker cover.  So I borrowed my neighbors when he wasn't

home.  Once its cut to fit, I should have power once again real soon.:>))   I was able to read some and make some

clay effigy pipes, and make a pottery friend some new tools from split bamboo and water pipes (button dies).

Spring is so close !!!

Alabama

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My Fred is in my living room, and he honestly took on the humble role of "house heater" rather than fulfilling his original function. My house was built in 1885 and is insulated like a shoebox. It got down below zero fahrenheit and that's not including the wretched wind! It was Fred who kept my sweet bunbabies and myself warm. I popped his lid open and ran the top ring on "low."

 

Sadly, because my Fred was my means of staying warm, I didn't get to fire until a couple weeks ago. That will hopefully change when I move back in with mah momma guinea. :) I'll likely be firing more, too, because I wanna get her into clay, too!

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I have to say although this has been the coldest February and winter in NYC in 80 years it is starting to feel warmer with spring just around the corner. Temperature in the 30's the last few days and will be 40's this week. The warm yellow sun from which I get my power has been shining down brightly and I'm walking with a renewed spring in my step even though the ice hasn't fully melted yet.

 

Paul.

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mark, our florida weatherman was pointing out the record rains happening in california.  he said your soils cannot handle an inch of rain in a day so we might be seeing mudslides and the like for the state.  was he wrong?

 

i know my los angeles friend said she had never been through so much rain as the day she visited me in west va.  it rained for 3 hours or so.

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Same here Chris.  We had a moderate snow last week, but as I was out shoveling, I heard Spring birds.  Then, the rest of the week, we had record, sub zero, temps.  Those birds, were not doubt confused.

 

I've heard the "Old Farmer Saying", "That a Robin has to put its feet in the snow twice, before we'll see Spring..."

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My basement studio stays around 60 degrees, so if I keep a space heater nearby it's comfortable in the winter. My bigger concern was that I was almost out of clay, but the path between my driveway and my studio door was covered in a small mountain of ice and snow. I had to call my supplier last week and ask if the delivery could be postponed. Then we had another ice storm. Argh!! Finally, yesterday it was above freezing, and I was able to shovel out a narrow path. The delivery was made this morning. This is about 9 months supply of clay, so unfortunately it will be winter again when I place my next order.

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Mea, judging from the looks of the studio, you've posted before, I'd say our houses are about the same age.  Mine was built in 1920.  So I can imagine your space, is just as "cool" as mine.  Concrete block walls, concrete floors, that just radiate cold, all year long.

 

Mine has the same stairs, same walls/ foundation, but the layout is a bit different... And your studio is waaaay nicer and better organized... Putting things on shelves, so you can find them?  That makes too much sense!

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Yup my house was built in 1935. All the concrete, and being underground, regulates the temperature pretty well year round. The biggest problem with a basement studio, as I freshly witnessed this morning, is how difficult it is to get a ton+ of clay down a flight of stairs.

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Yeah, the temperature regulation is great.  Moving heavy things down into the space, nope.  I haven't yet moved anything more than a couple hundred pounds at a time, into my studio.  If I do start doing so, it will be me and a two wheel cart, I believe.

 

How did you do it?  A cart, you and your twenty closest friends (that would only be two boxes per person...) or did you just stand at the top of the stairs, and left gravity pull them down, hoping the boxes and bags were really well constructed?

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The delivery guy put about 500 lbs at a time on a heavy duty hand truck, and slowly bounced down the stairs. As you can imagine, this guy is really strong. I used to get my clay from a different supplier, who would leave it on a pallet on the driveway. I carried it down one box at a time X 40 trips. So now that someone will bring it down the stairs for me, I give him a big tip. I'm hoping he spent it on a big lunch.

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I need to update my previous post. Spring will be slightly delayed in my area. I just heard we are getting a lot of snow on Thursday so I guess I won't be throwing outside very soon. Still surviving winter. Yuck.

 

Paul

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mark, our florida weatherman was pointing out the record rains happening in california.  he said your soils cannot handle an inch of rain in a day so we might be seeing mudslides and the like for the state.  was he wrong?

 

i know my los angeles friend said she had never been through so much rain as the day she visited me in west va.  it rained for 3 hours or so.

That weather report is for Southern Cal I'm afraid as the state is 770 miles long.So thats  alot of space from deserts- to Huge mountains (over 10,000 feet) and rain forest and a lot in between

I live in the extreme northern coastal section where a foot of rain is nothing for our soils-our rain total so far this year at the studio is over 32 inches and its a dry year for us here. We are on our own well so rainfall means water for us to wash and drink.

I have noticed over a lifetime of being born and raised in Ca that folks from So-Cal never see much weather and freak out when it happens-its just an observation.

Thats why when it rains there you hear about 1,000 trafic accidents per day.I try to stay away from that part of the state at all costs-the only reaon to go is to by a used boat or as I did a few years ago fly down to UCLA neurology center to see the top man about some migraine issues I have had over the years.Thats about the only reasons I can think of.Just to many people for me. And I was born down there.

This has been our warmest winter in history the paper said for our part of the state.Average temp (DEc-Feb) was 52.2

Mark

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Well.this is a fun topic-interesting reading the various situations and replies. I love the winter and the deep, long-lasting snows here in New Hampshire, but it has wreaked havoc with my plan to have a functioning studio and kiln going by January. Note that January was a while ago. The kiln is crated up on the back porch and the electric has to go under and up, around & through or some such. In any event, no one was up for trudging through the snow and then under the porch to do this until literally yesterday, when some of the line got put in. Hopefully the hard wiring and the inside stuff will be done soon.

 

My studio is in my former bedroom and pretty well put together. I am just getting used to having my bedroom in the tiny spare room, but  it's fine, since there's just me. I have thrown a few test pieces (getting re-acquainted with all the involved elements after a 30 year break). I am not going to be able to be part of the NHIA/Sharon Art Center (John Baymore) anagama firing this spring (end of March) mostly due to some family matters. I was sorely disappointed at first but now I am OK with it because the whole winter-no-kiln thing means I would have been rushed to test and bisque anyway.  It is wonderful to be in a place (not "working for the man", good emotional health, time that is my own) where I can see and enjoy the birds and other critters, snow or no snow. So, as I like to say about my life in general these days, I am "thriving, beyond surviving, and not just the winter.   

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I'm a bit spoiled my studio is partially heated and I use a electric heater to finish warming it up.  It took me 40 years to get to this point and have had a lot of crummy studio's in the past.  Some days are so cold here that the electric heater can't  keep up and I have to wear a light jacket those days I clean, sketch and think.  It's snowing outside right now,  it will be nice to watch while I make test glazes but I'm happy warm weather is moving in.   Denice

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I like that delivery man. I had a pallet clay delivered and the driver unloaded the pallet with a forklift and left. I moved it all with a dollie but 200# at a time. I guess I'm a wuss (sp?). My husband , the theoretical astrophysicist says he went into theory to avoid mass. I am on my own.

 

Marcia

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