Callie Beller Diesel

@Benzine You had to sign up for kilns, so everyone knew I had loaded it.

My personal dumbest moment was back in college while loading the outdoor soda kiln in sub zero temperatures while not turning on the gas burners to heat the inside of the kiln. The posts and the shelves were so cold (they were kept outside) they froze the wadding, and when it melted, it shifted the stack and the whole thing fell over. I was not popular for this particular move.

We're in stage 2 relaunch here in Alberta after some pretty harsh nationwide shutdowns. We're down to 220 active cases in the Calgary area, and we were a hotspot for a while there. Things like restaurants, retail, aesthetic services, libraries and some museums and other things are open, but with capacity restrictions and rules about mask wearing, distancing and cleaning. Kids aren't going back to school until the fall, and daycares are only for essential service workers right now. There are supposed to be some summer camps and childcare available, but they'll probably fill up very quickly. We're still not supposed to engage in non-essential interprovincial travel like holidays, although we can travel for things like funerals. The maximum gathering size does vary by province, but here they're 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors. Mask wear indoors is strongly recommended, and the government has been handing out free ones (the disposable surgical kind) at Tim Horton's drive through's because we're predictable that way. Compliance on the mask wearing thing seems to be 50-60% at a rough eyeball at the grocery store. Phase 2 just started last week, and they're watching for any increases before deciding when they're going to go to phase 3, which is all systems go. School systems are still trying to form official plans for the fall, but they won't be able to declare anything concrete until late August. The kids usually go back the first week after Labour Day. My weekly farmers market starts up this weekend, and my first round is the weekend after. Even though the whole thing is outdoors in a very large area, they're still doing headcounts, and only letting a certain number of shoppers through at a time. All foot traffic is one way, and we all have to provide hand sanitizer or hand wash stations, even if we're not food vendors. Food vendors need to prepare samples in a commercial kitchen in advance, and have them in sealed cups. We have to restrict the number of people allowed in a booth and set up 6' markers so people can maintain distances. All tables need plastic coverings so that they can be sanitized regularly, as well as any payment keypads. I plan on having bleach solution on hand to clean each piece in between people touching them, in addition to having sanitizer available for people to use before and after picking things up if they wish to do so. My display will just be across the front of the tent to discourage people from crowding. I'll be wearing a fabric mask, as per provincial recommendations. We have to go through a check in every week to declare we haven't traveled or been sick, and are currently not experiencing any symptoms before we're allowed to set up. There's other rules for people from different households working together, but I'm usually by myself so I haven't checked those.

Or even throwing it with a rim similar to the dish on the right, but maybe a bit higher? Closer to your own aesthetic.

The extended family is another story entirely! When I was speaking to some of my sister's in-laws at a gathering one time, one of them expressed horror and disgust that you coud get a degree in Ceramics. He thought because his mom did some scratch and bake gnomes in the 70's I was doing the same thing.

I make my living throwing pots, so it’s not like I’m just at the wheel for relaxation. I’m not making 100K of pots a year, but I manage a respectable wage. A Giffen grip simply isn’t ideal in all situations. I’m not for a second saying people shouldn’t use one, nor am I some kind of Luddite. Currently I have a skill set and a demand level that renders one unnecessary. Lots of people pull handles rather than extruding them too, even though the extruder is a lot faster. Some of it’s preference, and what’s wrong with that?

Wayne and I got together when I was halfway through art school for pottery, so he knew it was part of the package. He tried one afternoon to center a bit of clay on the wheel and decided it was NOT his thing, but that it didn’t need to be. He has been my biggest source of emotional support the whole time. He made sure I got my pottery wheel at a time it wasn’t the most financially sound move ever and I told him not to. When we moved into our current house, my birthday present was him stripping the carpet out of a basement bedroom and scraping the floor so I could have a studio space. He gets me out of my head when I’m overthinking myself into anxiety. I truly have one of the best ones.

I borrowed a friend’s Giffen grip once and had a lot of problems using it because the point I needed the holder pads to be on to centre the pot was also the point I needed to trim on. I gave it back. I didn’t like it even a little bit, although I liked the idea of what it was supposed to do. At the time, I tended to pull too quickly in the beginning stages and the rims didn’t have the same centre point as the shoulder or the foot. It took me about an afternoon or two after that to get the hang of tap centring, and I usually don’t come by manual skills like that easily. That said, if I get to the point where I do Mark or Mea’s quantity of production, I’ll buy one in a heartbeat and re-learn a skill. I happened to meet half of the couple that runs the Giffen company in the hotel lobby last year at NCECA. She was an absolute heartwarming delight to talk to, and based on that I wouldn’t hesitate to reach out to them and ask questions. They stand by their stuff.

A sugar jar from last fall, but playing with photo editing.

@liambesaw Yeah, that’s screwed up. I mean, how much work do they want to have to re-do, essentially, by making everyone apply again?

The big commercial shows here almost never have a jury fee, but they also don’t usually ask people outside the organization to jury, either. It’s all done in-house. The only time you see application fees are in gallery shows, where they do ask for outside help. Mind you, door fees for shoppers are also almost universal now, as it’s considered a way to keep tire kickers out. Usually it’s only a couple of dollars, they’re good all weekend, and organizers use it to keep track of the number of attendees they get.

Someone was asking on one of the Facebook groups the other day of vendors would be interested in paying a fee to upload your work to their site, they’d handle all the sales and you do the shipping and some of the promoting. A number of people pointed out he’d just described Etsy. I pointed out that there was no value proposition if I was still doing all the work. I could just spend the money on some other form of advertising. He complimented me on my website and sent me an invite. Smh.

We’ve also been stuck at home for two months except for essential services for 7 weeks, and starting the reopening may be premature. Cases are going down, but there have been large outbreaks at a few critical meat packing plants and at the Amazon warehouse. So ...it depends. They're making plans, but they’re also saying if the numbers start going up again, back home we go.

Even though we’ve had some big outbreaks in my area (Calgary is a hotspot), new cases are declining and over half the cases so far have recovered. Reopening plans are staggered, and all but the first step have no fixed date. The easing of the levels of restrictions are dependent on case numbers still falling before the next step can happen. The plan looks ok on paper so far. So some tentative good news there! But as with everything in this potter’s life...it depends. I’m watching the numbers to make sure things seem under control before I go to any markets. The upshot of this is my summer farmer’s market has been tentatively given the go ahead to have non food vendors, so here is what some reopening might look like. They will be adding 6’/2m of space between each booth to encourage more physical distancing, and foot traffic will be one way only. If need be, the area of the market will be increased to allow for additional space. We will all be required to have hand sanitizer for ourselves and our customers and are encouraged to wear masks. Gloves are optional as people tend not to use them correctly. We have been asked to consider keeping our displays towards the front of our booths using our tables or other fixtures as barriers, so that physical distance is easier to maintain. Plexiglass barriers are optional. We need to provide contactless payment options (some vendors were cash only). There will be no food sampling, and the food vendors all need hand wash stations in addition to the sanitizer. The area the market is in is quite spacious, and even though a lot of folks go through there, the distance thing should be fairly easy to maintain there. Easier than the grocery store anyways. It doesn’t start until the end of June, but as long as case numbers keep going down, I have to assume I’m back on the job next month.

I made a big thing. Because I can. It is still drying. (actual shot of the workbench even)

We used to go pick the stuff in my grandma's orchard in Penticton. I like it lightly steamed with lemon zest and butter. If I'd had it canned, I think I understand not liking it! It's not supposed to be mushy.

I favour a “just right” cross section. I don’t like chippy rims or burning my fingers.

@Rae Reich thank you! The lids are model 69-B http://www.ezpots.com/lids.html

I did photos today. Here are some ideas that bear more exploring, although I have to test and see how folks will respond to them. Also, I found a much better alternative to the cover style travel mug lid. It fits a number of mugs in my personal collection. It’s been handy since we’re doing all the home office stuff in the basement so we can have some work/life separation and it’s cold down there.

I was reading an article this morning on how the curve is being flattened in Canada, but there’s no talk of relaxing anything yet because we aren’t past the peak. The idea wasn’t that the general population needs to be protected from it, but many vulnerable populations do so that deaths are minimized and the hospitals aren’t overwhelmed and they can’t provide proper care. The whole stay home thing is supposed to be a look after your neighbour situation. The farmer’s market that accounts for most of my Q3 income is opening as planned in late May, but only to food/alcohol/live plant vendors, who are considered essential services right now. Booths will have 2 meters (6.5’) in between each other, foot traffic will be one way only and 6’ social distancing lineup markers will be enforced. Sampling is prohibited, and the hand washing station plans are kind of impressive. They may add some of us non-food types in at a later time, but that’s very up in the air. Everyone I know who makes fabric anything is making face masks, so there’s the next fashion trend. I bought two from a friend, and they’re pretty, but I feel like I’m knocking over a Sev going into the grocery store wearing one. Honestly I think with how fast everything changes, making predictions for 6 months from now is difficult. There’s not enough information, and a whole lot of guesswork because it’s all new. I’m going to proceed as though the sales will happen, because if I don’t, I won’t have enough stock. If sales go ahead, they’ll have more rules on them about spacing, which will affect venue capacities. If sales don’t go ahead, then the online gets pushed, and we band together in our local entrepreneurial groups, and do things together. There’s one market organizers go, after their event got cancelled, decided to put together Mother’s Day gift baskets filled with things from the vendors they chose. They’ll be delivering or shipping them as needed. I think that whatever happens this Christmas, it’s not going to look like last year. Maybe there will be more advanced order and pickup situations, there will probably be crowd calming measures in place, and maybe longer hours to compensate for reduced occupancies. There are solutions to be had.

I’m working on a free trial of a yoga app (Glo). So far so good. It’s not my usual hot yoga, but I found some similar routines to what I’m used to.

It’s more because we’re at 2000’ above sea level. It was gone by lunchtime the next day. It’s ten C today.

It snowed yesterday. Not a lot, but it snowed.