Denice

My first studio just had a bucket of water, that was alright I just did hand building. My second studio had cold water and I had a garden hose on a utility sink that drained out doors. My third studio had hot and cold water in a tiny sink and a simple bucket settling system where the clear water went into a floor drain. I built my current studio it has a nice large sink, hot and cold water. The drain line on the sink goes down to a settling system in the basement, the clear water drains into the sump pump. I am still very conservative with my water use I guess it is my training from my bucket days. Denice

Still down and out with my hand I hope the hand doctor gives me good news next week. Big excitement today was going grocery shopping, my husband scours the store for meals that are easy to make. He use to complain when I bought them but now that he is the cook those meals are pretty good. Denice

Unloading a kiln later today, my husband will have to unload it for me still on lifting restrictions. It is so hard to stay out of my studio, I have two more weeks to go. Denice

It was sad but I have accepted that life doesn't always come out the way you think it will. You have to accept the bumps and turns in life and find joy in other moments, I have the memories of past Christmas and that is enough. I hope everyone enjoys their holiday and appreciates every second of it. Denice

We don't exchange gifts anymore, I found out that my sister in-law threw our gifts away every year. I didn't ever give that many pieces of pottery as gifts, I will make a piece upon request. My son and his wife send a list of what to order from Amazon for them. Denice

Nothing going on in my shop just got the stitches out of my wrist and hand and it will be four more weeks before I can do much. What a bummer. Denice

I stocked up on it about 10 years ago right before a price increase so I still have plenty. Denice

Firing a bisque today, I wanted to get this done before I get my hand surgery done Wednesday. Having my carpal tunnel fixed in my right wrist and my flip finger, the surgeon said I should be as healed up with no restrictions in 6 weeks. Denice

I use to make these small kidney shaped sculptures that had designs carved on them. The gallery that I sold at wanted something small for people to buy, I wanted something that people could enjoy tactically. They sold quite well. Denice

It's kind of strange I like to see the balance and attention to design in the piece but I like to feel the imperfections in a hand made pot. When you pick up a factory made utility bowl it doesn't evoke any feelings it is so dead feeling you could easily toss it aside and let it shatter on the floor. When you pick up a handmade bowl you can feel the energy. you pour over it examining every nook and cranny and setting it down ever so gently. Denice

Marcia is that 7-9 inches of snow on top of what you have in your photo? That is pretty snow you have, we don't get enough snow for it to be pretty. We have a prediction of a half of inch Thursday but the weather man said it probably wouldn't happen. Some years we don't get any snow. With your new fuming set up you will be able to get a lot more work done. Have fun! Denice

Min that sounds like a wasp/bee we have around here, it is called a Cykada killer, it was imported here in the twenties when Kansas had the locust invasion. A sting from them will put you in the hospital. Just got back from the Senior housing, my mother in-law was eating dinner and couple of ladies sat next to her. They asked her where she use to live and she told them down the street, she asked them where they use to live. The one lady said she didn't remember and asked her friend, her friend told her she came from Timbucktoo! My mother in-law is 96 and has all her wits could barely keep a straight face, living in a senior village might be fun after all. Heading out to my studio. Denice

I managed to get some clay soaking so I can recycle it, we are still moving my mother in-law. We have started cleaning up the house to get it on the market. We have had some help but need a lot more. Everyone thinks they have done their part and quit. Can't wait to get back in my studio. Denice

My high school only had one wheel, my teacher would pick a boy to teaching throwing too. He didn't think girls were strong enough to throw. When I went to college to get a degree in clay I needed to take three semesters in throwing. Rick St.John was my first throwing teacher, he was very patient and drilled the basics into our brain. My second teacher was more into teaching us how to recycle, make clay and cleaning, very little throwing. My third teacher was a mountain of a man and would throw a 25 lb block of clay in minutes, he gave my class a few helpful hints but mostly we followed a throw and cut schedule. I decided to concentrate on hand building when I had completed my throwing requirements. Who knows I may have stayed with throwing if I had a mentor. I have been rebuilding my brain/hand connections since I bought a used wheel. Marc found it for me and convinced me that getting rid of my kick wheel and going electric was the best way to retrain. He was right, maybe he is my mentor. Denice

I don't know if a photo will be able to show the effect I am getting with the glass. I am making the molds with the bottom surface with a throwing rings and a broken area where a hand blown bottle would have been broken off of the blow rod. The glass that is against the mold comes out a satin matte finish, the glass on the top is very glossy. When you hold the glass up to a light and look through the glossy top you can see the pattern from the mold. So far the glass is firing very clear with a few small bubbles, The bottle pattern looks like it is floating in the thick glass has almost a eerie feeling. The glass is turning out better than I expected, I may have to put a spot light on it at night to get the full effect after the sun has gone down. Denice

Throwing some more glass molds today, I nearly have a kiln filled with them. I have my firing scheduled figured out finally for the glass. Turns out making a inch thick disc shape out of recycled glass is very difficult to do. I have a 11 hour firing schedule for it, most of the time is spent holding at certain temperatures for a hour or more. The thicker the glass the longer the annealing takes, I don't have a computerized kiln so I spend the the whole day with the kiln and my pyrometer. I could have bought fritted glass that is easier to fire and at a much lower temperature but I wanted to do something with recycled glass. Denice

Finished my glass casting tests Saturday and finally got my finished cast to look like old wine bottle bottoms. I still need to throw more molds but I have been cleaning and reorganizing the bookcase in my shop. It was so full paperwork and books were spilling onto the floor. I can get back to throwing molds today. My mother in-law is getting ready to move into a senior residence apartment, that will keep me busy for awhile. Denice

The first thing I thought of was a paint sieve that fits on a 5 gal bucket. I had bought several of them when I painted the house and had a extra one. I tried one out when I was mixing a 3 gal batch of glaze. I sieved it through the paint mesh before I sieved it through my 100# mesh sieve. Doing it this way seem to make the whole process easier and faster. They are also very inexpensive, about $3 each. For people who work with slabs a seam roller for wallpaper can help mesh your seams together. A vinyl layout pad with measurement marks for fabric can also be helpful for slab, both are also inexpensive. Denice

Working with a coarser clay makes the smooth process a little slower, I got into coiling when I was in college. I took a archeology class that was in a competition with other colleges to replicate Anazai pottery. It was held in the pottery studio and I was the only clay person in the class. The professor taught the class how he thought they made the coiled pots, I told him he was wrong that the pots would crack and fall apart. At the end of the semester we fired them in a trench firing, my work come out fine the rest was broken shards. I had a dozen pieces come out of the firing most of them quite large and thin walled. The professor admitted I was right, the archeology department won the competition with my work. Denice

My studio is full of clay right now, I have a off white speckled, Speckled buff. Standard red, Death Valley red and yellow. These are my clay's used for coiling , the coils are smoothed and Indian designs usually Mimbres or Anazai are applied using stains or glazes. At least half of the pot is not glazed so the color of the clay and texture is important. I also have a buff throwing clay that I have been using to improve my throwing skills. I recycle my clay, it is part of my process. I went to college during the hippie era and was taught that all of mother earths offerings such as clay are precious and need to be recycled. I was also taught to evaluate a piece before you fire it, think about someone finding that pot hundreds of years from now. Is it worthy of being around that long, because it is fired it won't disintegrate and return to the earth. Denice

I was 12 years old when I fell in love with clay, didn't have much opportunity to work with it until I was in high school. I really ran with it , I did good enough work I won a lot of awards and a art scholarship. I have piddle with many other area of the arts, it would probably take all day to list them. I always came back to clay. There is so many different areas in clay to study I decided to focus on C5/6 oxidation firing. Richard Zakin 's first C6 book had just come out with his philosophy, formulas and theory, after reading it I knew that it was the future of clay at least for me. Denice

My husband hadn't been to a doctor for 40 years and he has colon cancer in his family. My scope came out clean as a whistle the nurses were coming up and asking what kind of diet I had. I told them I love any kind of fiber. Time to get out to my shop and start throwing more molds. Denice

I am throwing molds for casting glass in, I need around 65 of them and I am at the half way point today. My shelves are over loaded, I need to do a bisque firing. Stuck at home my husband had colon surgery a couple of weeks ago and has two more weeks of recovery to go. We got the biopsy yesterday no cancer but has the DNA for colon cancer so he'll have to be checked every year. Modern medicine is amazing they can cut something out with a Robot, stitch it up and send you home the next day. I can't even make a pot in that amount of time. Denice

I think for me it is designing and testing C 1 Majolica glaze and clay body for two years that would hold up to nasty icy winter weather. I wanted to keep the rich and brilliant color that is lost with higher firings. I am working on another project that is just as difficult and lots of testing, I am not there yet but I am confident I will get the results I want. Denice