Denice

I also felt that way in college but finally figured out it that is what a college education should do.   Push you kicking and screaming down new roads.   Denice

I have my cut off wires hung on the wall next to the wheel and a cottage cheese container full of basic throwing tools.   I have another container with hand building tools on a separate table  Extra tools and misc.  are in  divided trays that stack inside of each other.  I keep my extruder dies in a shoe box on a shelf near the extruder,  I also have rolling pins on that shelf and my Skutt thermocouple.   I have managed to collect way to many tools,  I bought some to fill out a order that my husband was getting from China years ago.  They were really cheap,  I have purchased some old tools at estate sales, they are my favorite to work with.   I will put together a set of tools and a bag of clay for someone who needs it for therapy or just home bound and bored,  I even offer to fire whatever they make.   My neighbors have three school age children,  I offered to give them clay and tools during the shelter in,   they turned me down.  The mother is a teacher and I have run into teachers that didn't think art was necessary when my son was in school.   Denice

I picked some asparagus Sunday and mixed it with some tulips in a bouquet for my mother in-law.    She lives in a senior living facility,  they have sheltered in for 8 weeks now and not allowed any visitors.   The food is alright but they haven't had any asparagus on the menu since she moved in 6 months ago,  she loves it raw or cooked.   We watched the staff from our car gather the items to be delivered to her,  they noticed the asparagus bouquet and got the strangest looks on their faces.   She called us later and was bursting with joy over her unusual bouquet.   She is 97 and everyone thinks of her as their mother so she had received lot of candy and flowers.  She said the asparagus was the best present she had received in a long time.     Denice

Let the asparagus grow before 3 years before picking it.  I found a new patch of it in my garden,  seeds from the plants last fall.   Those cinnamon rolls look yummy.   Denice

I don't have a photo of it but I made roasted King asparagus from my garden.   The asparagus is so huge that you have to peel the stems like a potato.    I rub some olive oil on it and sprinkle with garlic salt,  roast it at 400 degrees 10 to 15 minutes.  Before I serve it I sprinkle a little dry cheese on it,  my husband who was a little skeptical told me it was the best dish he had in a long time.  Very tender and juicy!   Denice

We were quickly running out of yeast and unable to find any at a decent price.  I think the yeast on E-bay is about the same price as gold per ounce.  I noticed some San Francisco starter for sale,  my husband isn't crazy about sour dough,  I decided to do a little research.   I found a starter made with boiled potato water,  flour and a package of yeast.  I have made three loaves,  my next loaf I am adding some apple cider vinegar to it to create more bubbles in the loaf.  I am glad I hung onto my bread machine,  I bought it at a estate sale for ten dollars.   I hardly ever used it and was thinking of giving it away.  Denice

No bears here,  there is a private zoo a half mile from us  with exotic animals,  we will have to take a drive and see what animals are out and about.   We often see a group of camels running across the fields,  their size and strength is very impressive.  The heron rookery  by the creek is full this year, nice to have them back,  they disappeared for a couple of years.    The deer and coyotes are still playing hide and seek,  I think the deer are winning.  I see some  hungry  looking coyotes around,  I have to keep a close eye on my dog.    My husband loves to cook,  so far he has made a loaf of farm type bread and a loaf of raisin bread.   The raisin bread wasn't sweet and didn't have enough raisins any suggestions would be appreciated.   We are trying to help keep some of the food places in business while everyone is sheltered in.   Went through a drive thru at a chicken place the other day,  haven't done that since we gave up fried foods twenty years ago.   IHOP is delivering in our neighborhood so we are going to order a dinner from them.  We have never had a meal there so that will be a whole new experience.  Ordered groceries on line for the first time.  we can pick them up Monday at noon, good thing I didn't need them this week.    Denice

When I was in high school  did our Raku in our class room,  we pulled the pieces out of the one electric kiln the school had and put them in a galvanized bucket filled with newspapers and put a lid on it.  There was a big sink nearby and they were taken out of the bucket and washed while they were still hot.    This is the same teacher you left the kiln on all night and melted his pots all over the shelves.   He burned down the clay classroom a few years after I graduated,  the board of education had a huge gas kiln brought in to replace the small electric kiln lost in the fire.   He must of fired it on the weekends,   I can't imagine firing a gas kiln around students during class.    Denice

Like everyone else I have seen my share of kiln disasters.   The worse one was the year I was graduating from college,  it was the last firing for the year.   A friend had begged the master students to put some of her pots in the firing.   Some how she had gotten some low fire clay mixed in,  her pieces on the top shelf melted and ran down the pots below.   I am not sure if every piece was ruined but it sure looked like it.   I didn't have any work in it I had already started working with C5/6 oxidation and usually fired at home.   A few month later I came home to find a dozen 5 gal buckets of dried up clay sitting in my driveway.  She had left a note saying she was giving up clay.   I called her and asked what cone the clay was and she said she didn't know.   Fortunately we had a area in our yard that always need fill because of a creek.    Denice

I picked some asparagus Sunday and mixed it with some tulips in a bouquet for my mother in-law.    She lives in a senior living facility,  they have sheltered in for 8 weeks now and not allowed any visitors.   The food is alright but they haven't had any asparagus on the menu since she moved in 6 months ago,  she loves it raw or cooked.   We watched the staff from our car gather the items to be delivered to her,  they noticed the asparagus bouquet and got the strangest looks on their faces.   She called us later and was bursting with joy over her unusual bouquet.   She is 97 and everyone thinks of her as their mother so she had received lot of candy and flowers.  She said the asparagus was the best present she had received in a long time.     Denice

Hmmmm, off the top of my head, I'm going to go with this one:
During my fifth year teaching, I had a Ceramics I class, in which I also had a couple "helpers".  I forget what that District called them, but essentially they got a credit for helping a teacher, with whatever they needed.  Generally I would only have one per class, but for some reason, I accepted both at the same time.
Anyway, the way we recycled clay, was by having the students hand mix the wet reclaim, with a dry clay powder.  I realize now, this was it's own level of stupid, and it was just something I did, because that's how it had been done by the previous instructor.  I had a couple students, who  needed more clay, and the clay powder was out.  So I sent my helpers to get another bag from storage.  The students mixed it with the reclaim, and that was that...  UNTIL, some of the projects made with that clay were fired.  Said projects partially melted.  Unlike several of the other stories, this was not a Low Fire/ Mid-High Fire issue, because we only used Low Fire.  Instead, it was a label reading issue.  The helper students grabbed a bag of dry GLAZE powder, without looking at what it was.  Am I partially to blame?  Absolutely!  I should have double checked, and in their defense, the bags looked identical, minus the stamped label, which is partially abbreviated. 
Luckily, there wasn't enough glaze mixed with the clay, to damage anything.  The projects didn't even stick to the shelf.  Basically they were large scale Egyptian Paste sculptures.
And fortunately, the contaminated clay was easy to find, and dispose of.
The worst part was that the students lost a project that they worked on.  They still got a proper grade for it, they just had nothing to take home. 

Like everyone else I have seen my share of kiln disasters.   The worse one was the year I was graduating from college,  it was the last firing for the year.   A friend had begged the master students to put some of her pots in the firing.   Some how she had gotten some low fire clay mixed in,  her pieces on the top shelf melted and ran down the pots below.   I am not sure if every piece was ruined but it sure looked like it.   I didn't have any work in it I had already started working with C5/6 oxidation and usually fired at home.   A few month later I came home to find a dozen 5 gal buckets of dried up clay sitting in my driveway.  She had left a note saying she was giving up clay.   I called her and asked what cone the clay was and she said she didn't know.   Fortunately we had a area in our yard that always need fill because of a creek.    Denice

Silly or stupid-its a toss up
lets see back in art school early 70s -well lets call him Ed (to protect the stupid) stacked the 36 cubic Alpine with bisque ware one late afternoon and started a candle falme on kiln and left-I was throwing late after after a few hours we all heard a huge Kabam sound and dust shot out of kiln room in huge clouds. What the heck we all slowly went it to see what that cpould have been???
Seems Ed did not know about lining up all the posts on top of each other on shelves-he just put them where he felt like and the whole load collapsed to the floor taking out all the greenware-all 26 cubic feet of it.Many people where not happy with Ed after that.
Lets move forward about 5 years and Ed was firing his 1st homemade catanary  arch kiln-it was propane-he had trouble lighting it-has the gas on and then turned it off and went for more matches-started the burners again and Kabam as the kiln had lots of heavy propane still trapped in foor area it went off like a bomb. The arch went up -he was crouched to the side  and was knocked away of front wall as both front and rear walls blew out and arch came down in pieces-a complete loss of wares and kiln. He was ok but shaken.I was about 25 feet away at the time.
Fast forward about two more years 
Ed called me to see if I was interested in buying all his stuff which I did at that time.I figure I saved many many  a pots from destruction getting Ed out of clay .
Never heard from Ed again but if you hear a huge Kabam sound he may  around still.

Liam I tried to get them to order a test kiln for me one time but the owner wasn't interested in ordering a brand he didn't handle.   It was a AIM test kiln that was highly recommended,  this was 20 years ago,  the store owner wanted to sell me a Paragon test kiln that looked like a enamel kiln.   I called AIM kilns and had them ship me one,  when I needed a new element I had to find it on-line.   He wouldn't help me with it,  he has always been a grouchy guy but the people that work for him are great.  He is the owner that just recently retired,  his son is just like him but his daughter is nice and friendly.   Last year I needed some more Flint Hill Buff Clay that I bought from them,  they didn't carry it anymore.   They told me who still sold the clay  and that I should call and order it from them.    Denice

Pres I have thought about ordering bars on line but I really feel like I should buy from my local ceramic store.   I feel very lucky to have a store nearby and want to support them and keep them in business.   When it opened in the late 60's I was in high school and bought my supplies from the  grandfather of the current owners, I was one of their first customers.     He retired and his sons expanded and kept the business running  for 40  years.     They decided to retire and their children started to work at the store a couple of years ago.   Denice

Still making  2 inch tiles,  I was loading a glaze firing and noticed that I was low on C5 cones and the ones I had left were much smaller than the usual cone.  I fire with a Skutt thermocouple but I like to have a cone in my kiln sitter.    I picked up a box at my local supplier this morning,  they reopened Monday and were pleased with the amount of business they were getting.   My husband and I had dental appts.   this morning so we decided to find some breakfast afterwards.   We found a local restaurant with only one car in the parking lot,  had a wonderful breakfast.  This is the first time we have been in a restaurant in two months.  Our favorite restaurant was packed so just drove on by,  avoiding crowds for now.    Denice

I am working on communion sets, and today is glazing on these chalices. Same number of patens will be fired also in this load.
 
best,
Pres

Even better than lineman's pliers, get some mini bolt cutters. I use them for element pigtails and they are sweet.

Let the asparagus grow before 3 years before picking it.  I found a new patch of it in my garden,  seeds from the plants last fall.   Those cinnamon rolls look yummy.   Denice

I picked some asparagus Sunday and mixed it with some tulips in a bouquet for my mother in-law.    She lives in a senior living facility,  they have sheltered in for 8 weeks now and not allowed any visitors.   The food is alright but they haven't had any asparagus on the menu since she moved in 6 months ago,  she loves it raw or cooked.   We watched the staff from our car gather the items to be delivered to her,  they noticed the asparagus bouquet and got the strangest looks on their faces.   She called us later and was bursting with joy over her unusual bouquet.   She is 97 and everyone thinks of her as their mother so she had received lot of candy and flowers.  She said the asparagus was the best present she had received in a long time.     Denice

I picked some asparagus Sunday and mixed it with some tulips in a bouquet for my mother in-law.    She lives in a senior living facility,  they have sheltered in for 8 weeks now and not allowed any visitors.   The food is alright but they haven't had any asparagus on the menu since she moved in 6 months ago,  she loves it raw or cooked.   We watched the staff from our car gather the items to be delivered to her,  they noticed the asparagus bouquet and got the strangest looks on their faces.   She called us later and was bursting with joy over her unusual bouquet.   She is 97 and everyone thinks of her as their mother so she had received lot of candy and flowers.  She said the asparagus was the best present she had received in a long time.     Denice

I picked some asparagus Sunday and mixed it with some tulips in a bouquet for my mother in-law.    She lives in a senior living facility,  they have sheltered in for 8 weeks now and not allowed any visitors.   The food is alright but they haven't had any asparagus on the menu since she moved in 6 months ago,  she loves it raw or cooked.   We watched the staff from our car gather the items to be delivered to her,  they noticed the asparagus bouquet and got the strangest looks on their faces.   She called us later and was bursting with joy over her unusual bouquet.   She is 97 and everyone thinks of her as their mother so she had received lot of candy and flowers.  She said the asparagus was the best present she had received in a long time.     Denice

I picked some asparagus Sunday and mixed it with some tulips in a bouquet for my mother in-law.    She lives in a senior living facility,  they have sheltered in for 8 weeks now and not allowed any visitors.   The food is alright but they haven't had any asparagus on the menu since she moved in 6 months ago,  she loves it raw or cooked.   We watched the staff from our car gather the items to be delivered to her,  they noticed the asparagus bouquet and got the strangest looks on their faces.   She called us later and was bursting with joy over her unusual bouquet.   She is 97 and everyone thinks of her as their mother so she had received lot of candy and flowers.  She said the asparagus was the best present she had received in a long time.     Denice

I picked some asparagus Sunday and mixed it with some tulips in a bouquet for my mother in-law.    She lives in a senior living facility,  they have sheltered in for 8 weeks now and not allowed any visitors.   The food is alright but they haven't had any asparagus on the menu since she moved in 6 months ago,  she loves it raw or cooked.   We watched the staff from our car gather the items to be delivered to her,  they noticed the asparagus bouquet and got the strangest looks on their faces.   She called us later and was bursting with joy over her unusual bouquet.   She is 97 and everyone thinks of her as their mother so she had received lot of candy and flowers.  She said the asparagus was the best present she had received in a long time.     Denice

I picked some asparagus Sunday and mixed it with some tulips in a bouquet for my mother in-law.    She lives in a senior living facility,  they have sheltered in for 8 weeks now and not allowed any visitors.   The food is alright but they haven't had any asparagus on the menu since she moved in 6 months ago,  she loves it raw or cooked.   We watched the staff from our car gather the items to be delivered to her,  they noticed the asparagus bouquet and got the strangest looks on their faces.   She called us later and was bursting with joy over her unusual bouquet.   She is 97 and everyone thinks of her as their mother so she had received lot of candy and flowers.  She said the asparagus was the best present she had received in a long time.     Denice