Delinquent Blogger

Ok, so I have been a bit tardy. It has been a while since my last post, and a few things have happened.
We had our Fairview Studios Pottery sale, and even with the “recession” our sales were still quite robust. Not a record breaker, but not the worst either. We made $8302 in 3 hours, not bad for a Saturday mornings work. I managed to sleep in, and arrived at the venue with 10 minutes to spare. Everyone helped me set up, but as I did not have very much this year, it went quite smoothly. I usually pack my tables to the gills, and then only sell half. This year, I sold almost everything, but then again, I probably had half of what I normally do.
Another recent event, Fairview Studios is going to be moving. The lease was not renewed, as the owners want to expand their business into the studio’s bay. The good news is that they helped Dave find a new space, are going to pay the expenses of the move etc. The only glitch was that they had to increase the gas pressure in the new space to accommodate the large gas kiln we use. The new space is a Quonset, well lit, very well insulated (so we wont freeze our fingers off in the winter, and will stay cool in the summer). It has a gated yard and is located in a purely industrial location so we can do all kinds of alternative firings year round (unless a fire ban is on in the summer), so we can do mid winter raku etc…maybe I can perfect my naked raku process.

A few weeks ago, I fired the kiln solo. Dave was going to Kansas, and in order for one more glaze to get fired before the sale, I volunteered to learn how to fire it and then fire it on my own the Sunday before the sale. It went well, it is a bit tricky during the reduction, as you have to keep the back pressure up just enough, but not too much so you don’t fill the studio with stinky fumes, and then again, during the rest of the firing, you want to keep the back pressure up just enough so that the flame is just licking out the peep hole, but have the air intakes open all the way, and the dampers slightly closed. That night, I had nightmares of under fired ware, ware that had stuck to the UNDERSIDE of all the kiln shelves, over fired ware, etc…but it all worked out fine. No disasters, and it all looked good.