2015-09-16 - Wednesday - Pots, bisque, and kilns

Wednesday I put some faces on some of the pencil holders and started loading a bisque kiln. Unfortunately I reserved a 7 cubic foot kiln and my pots wouldn't fit so I had to request a 10 cubic foot kiln. There were also some other pots that needed to be loaded so we ended up choosing the larger, oval kiln that would fit everything. I will be loading that with Kimberly, our studio manager in the morning.

I'm trying to get everything glazed so we can load the gas kiln on Sunday. If we start the bisque kiln on Thursday morning I should be able to unload it on Saturday afternoon.

Pencil holders.

Pots ready to bisque.

I tried laying these tall pots down in the bottom of the
7 cubic foot kiln, but I couldn't fit everything in it.

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2015-09-15 - Tuesday - Garlic pots - go figure

The Carolina Raptor Center is selling my garlic pots in their gift shop and they have asked for some items with lower price points so I am making some smaller garlic pots.

Tuesday night I made four more.

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2015-09-14 - Monday - Pots and trees (on pots)

Saturday I was invited to throw some demo pots at the 11th Annual Potters Market International at the Mint Museum. I spent the day there but have no photos since I was totally immersed in the experience and not the documenting of it. Sorry, but I was having way too much fun to think about photos. I want to thank Hat Thompson and the crew for inviting me to participate.

I threw three pots at the demo and took them back to Clayworks.

Monday night I threw another pot and decided to carve some designs into the snorkel pot from last week. I took my sgraffito tool and started sketching trees on the side of the pot. Soon it was "a whole landscape gone to seed*".

Things may not always work out, but I do have fun in the making.

Three on left were made at the Potters Market Invitational.
Two on the right were made at Clayworks.

Detail of sgraffito.

*Sharkey's Day

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2015-09-10 - Thursday - Broken TV

Our four year old Sony TV stopped working last week and using the internet I deduced that the power supply failed. The power LED was red and blinking in a two-blink pattern which indicates a power supply failure. After trying several methods of getting it fixed I settled on an eBay vendor in Alhambra, CA that fixes the boards for our model "when the red LED is blinking twice". I contacted them to check on the procedure, clicked to buy it, and dropped the boards off at FedEx.

Now we wait.

The back of the TV is off to expose the boards.
There is surprisingly little inside the case.

The G6 and G7 boards.

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2015-09-09 - Wednesday - Weeds and pots

I've talked before about the scourge of the porcelain berry coming over our fence from the non-tended yard of our neighbor. It's really annoying. Our yard is not always the most neatly trimmed, but we don't let invasive weeds flourish and we sure as hell don't let them invade the neighbor's yards.

I'm going to cut everything off with the electric hedge trimmer and push the bulk of it back over on their side. I might spray it with some kind of weed killer after pushing it over to keep it from coming right back. This lack of maintenance is irresponsible and annoying.

Something that's not so annoying is when I get to Clayworks to make pots. I did that on Wednesday night when I made another snorkel pot and variation on a garlic pot. Sort of a garlicky pot.

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2015-09-08 - Tuesday - Garlic pots

Tuesday night I made some smaller garlic pots by request from the Carolina Raptor Center. I have some garlic pots in the gift shop there and they are looking for multiple price points. After making four small ones I couldn't help but make a larger one.

Since the orangestone clay appears to be the problem with the woo yellow glaze shivering off, I am making these out of phoenix instead. The surface isn't quite as dramatic so it makes for a quieter pot, but I have some other ideas with them too.

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2015-09-07 - Monday - Labor Day clay

Sunday we had some friends over for a cookout so Saturday and Sunday were spent cleaning, straightening, and cooking. I took Monday off and after getting just a few things done around the house I went to Clayworks and made some pencil holders for Stephanie. She wants one for her desk and I will let her choose when they're finished.

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