Thank you!!

Ok, so I absolutely hate shopping for clothes. Knowing this, my mother took it upon herself to arrange a day of shopping with her friend Linda in order to get my wardrobe renewed for interviews (I have one tomorrow afternoon). Linda has a good eye, and I really appreciate the help with this chore.
No pots today, but will be in the studio on Friday night. I will be at the fairview sale meeting tomorrow night and then refreshing centennial gallery as the ccaa "out of the box" show is over.

A little singed around the edges

I did a raku firing on Friday for a group of chemistry students from SAIT.
They were covering reduction/oxidation reactions and their instructor thought this would be a fun way to demonstrate a real world example. As I was checking the kiln, peering inside to see if the kiln was close to temp, I caught a bit of the heat from the flu, and I got a little bit singed around the temples, and eyelashes :)
I think it went pretty well. They all made their own pieces and of course there was a pipe, ooops...vase in the group.
I will have some pictures and perhaps some video clips to post soon. In the mean time, here are some of my results from the firing.

Finally!

I have a job interview tomorrow morning. Cross your fingers and toes.

new pics

Here are the pots I posted about last time.
I was teaching this evening, and was able to get these trimmed up and take some pictures. I threw a couple more this evening, as well as 6 cups in a similar style. One is a shallow dish, and the 2nd is similar in size to the large one pictured here.
I will probably glaze them in a clear glaze, but a smoky blue on the lower half. I think a simple clean glaze is called for with these pots. I will post pictures of the final result.

New Shapes

I was at the studio on Sunday, and was working with a new (to me) porcelain. I am not a fan of it yet, and in response to it's lack of workability, I decided to make some bowls that take this lack of workability into account. The walls are straight, with a slight inward angle, and the rim is thin and wavy, which will hopefully look nice when glazed in a clear glaze. These bowls acutally have a nice, clean look to them, and have a mountainous feel. Maybe working with this cranky body will have a nice side effect...a new shape that is fun to make, and not the same old, same old.
Again, pics will follow. I will see if I can get them trimmed up tomorrow, and then take some shots of them "in progress".
My laptop's power port is not working right now, and so I have been using the battery from the laptop my parents loaned me to power my laptop while their laptop is charching my battery and vice versa. I guess the next step is to find a cheap monitor so that I can use the PC tower they gave me, and use that instead of my laptop. I checked out getting it repaired, and it will take 2-3 weeks as it would need to be sent away. I don't have that much patience, or time to be away from the computer, so I will tough it out, and wait to get a new computer after I find a new job...

testing, testing and more testing

Good Grief! I just got home from mixing 25 glaze tests. I am taking a glaze formulation class, and we had to pick 4 ingredients (1 feldspar, 1 melter, 1 clay, and 1 other ingredient from a specific list). My partner and I chose Nepheline syenite, Doc Mills (a local clay), Borax, and Bone Ash.
We mixed 25 tests of all 4 of these ingredients using a predetermined percentage of each ingredient totaling 100 grams.
My feet hurt, and my hands are chapped.
I am pretty sure we will get some interesting results, most of them will suck, but I am hoping for at least 3 or 4 viable tests.
Must go to sleep now, I need t be at Ceramics Canada first thing tomrrow.
I will take some pics of the resulting tests when they are done.
We will be doing some line blends involving different oxides next week.

Raku Demo - March 26

I will be doing a raku demo next week for a chemistry course at SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology). The teacher has arranged for a field trip for her class so that they can witness oxidation and reduction reactions first hand in a fun setting (albeit a bit smokey and stinky).
Dave(the studio owner), hates doing Raku, but thought I would like to do it. I don't really like the flashy raku, I am drawn more to the simple white crackle glazes contrasting with the blackened clay body, but for this class, I think the iridescent copper sand type of glazes would work quite well, as they show the reduction quite nicely. I will take some pictures of the stuff that comes out of the firing and post them if there is anything really nice.

These pics are a pot that I raku fired last summer, and I was quite happy with the result.

massage

Just came back from a 1 hour massage. Gotta use up all my health benefits before they expire at the end of the month. Even though they can be painful, they sure do loosen you up. I highly recommend massages if you can find a really good therapist. I go to Sante Spa (1.5 blocks from my house). I have had massages from other places, like physio therapist offices, but the spa setting is much more relaxing, and peaceful.

The photo that I have posted with this is of my first painting that I did that I really really like. It is currently hanging on my living room wall, and I took it with my cell phone, so the quality isn't that good, but I think you get the gist. I was using acrylic molding paste and acrylic ink. The squiggly lines were created by embedding yarn in the molding paste, and then once it dries a bit, I pulled the yarn our, leaving the imprint of the yarn behind.

UNEMPLOYED, BUT STILL POTTING!

These are some of the things I have been working on recently. The Pictures were taken by by friend Barb Clarke. She is studying photography, and these were her first "commissioned" photos.
On another note, I have been spending a lot of time in the studio lately. I was restructured out of my job. Oh well, I am not angry, just ticked off. I am looking for work now that will take advantage of my creativity, and allow me to grow and develop my skills.
I have a couple of pottery sales coming up. The first is the Mad Potters Sale on April 17th, and the 2nd is the Fairview Studios Pottery Sale on May 1st.
I am also currently participating in a glaze development class for cone 6 offered through Fairview Studios, and hopefully this will result in some interesting new surface treatments for my work.
The painting that I have included in the photos above is one the paintings I have been working on. I have been part of a painting group that meets once a month. We are not all professional painters, but some of the members do make a living at it and are quite good.