No rest for the weary

Since I was up so early, I decided to get in the studio around 5:30 am and tidy up the pots I slipped yesterday, get them decorated and drying. As soon as the sun comes up I'll put them outside and hopefully the sun and wind will help them along and I'll be able to fire this last big load of bisque tomorrow. There are a couple of small pots which I still have to quickly slip this morning and they'll get bisqued in my tiny test kilns as soon as they're dry.

At some point today, I also need to make some small batches of two of my celadon liner glazes. If the cone 6 soda tests in the December firing are fruitful, this may be my last cone 10 soda firing and I don't want to batch any more glaze than I need for this group of pots. If all goes well, I'll still have some cone 10 clays to use up, but I'm thinking I might just do a couple of straight cone 10 gas firings of shinos in my small Olympic kiln, or even the big kiln depending on how many pots I wind up with. My thirty year old shino soup bowls have been well used and are starting to look a bit shop worn, so it would be nice to make us some new ones.

Partying weekend coming to a close

Tonight or tomorrow morning I need to pack up these pots and ship them to Oregon. Now I'll have make some more of the larger bowls during the next throwing cycle.

Last night's party was a great hit and the weekend partying has ended with a lovely brunch with our son Sean at the Knife and Fork. Sean is now on his way back to California, the house is post party cleaned and tidied and my focus is already on what I need to do in the studio; but first I have to plant a magnolia bush/small tree to replace the dead Redbud tree which Sean dug out for me yesterday, and then I can get a couple of hours of studio time before dinner, which is going to be super easy with leftovers - pate, chowder and a fresh salad.

Party time

This morning, our son Sean grabbed a bunch of my best pots out of the gallery to ship to his Oregon house. The shelves are looking a bit bare right now so I'm going to have to get in a lot of full studio days next week and get that last load of bisque fired and batch some more of my liner glazes which are all very low. Now that I'm over that 3 week plus virus, I have a lot of catching up to do.

After last nights wonderful dinner, with great wines, I had no trouble going to sleep. I found out that I can't finish a 3 lb lobster by myself, even when I only have salad to go with it; but Jim and Sean had no trouble finishing theirs and mine.

Although I had no trouble going to sleep, I had trouble staying asleep and have been up since a little past 3am, so I've been getting a good head start on preparations for tonight's party.

The dining room table is set and the living room is company ready, so I have very little to do the rest of the day other than making some toasted bread rounds for the pate and reheating the clam chowder that Sean had sent along with the lobsters. Our friend Jim is contributing the pork butt and the fixings for the sliders, and my Jim is in charge of the wine and acting as my "go for" person.

Lobster fest tonight

After doing some seeds saving after breakfast yesterday, I got a bit of studio time finishing a small group of pots and then spent a lot of time at the sink washing clay bags and other things, and sorting through some paper work. After thatI got in some good garden cleanup time and harvested the last French pumpkin which I gave to Nate and Wendy at the Knife and Fork where we had another lovely dinner. My pork chop was unbelievably good! After dinner, we topped off the days activities with some weekend food shopping.

This morning will be spent cooking. I need to bake bread and make a pate for tomorrow's indoor porch sitting with family and friends.Our son Sean is flying in from California for the weekend, and he's having Maine lobsters and chowder shipped in (he already sent the wine), so we are going to dine royally tonight! All I have to do is make a salad and cook the lobster and re-heat the chowder.

I'm not planning any studio time today because once the morning cooking is done, I still have a lot of little household chores on the agenda to get the house company ready.

Aji Cito peppers

Yesterday was a pretty full studio day. I quit around four thirty and took a few minutes to pick more of the hot peppers. These Peruvian aji cito chilies are still green but hopefully useable at this stage. Two are starting to turn yellow, so I'm hoping to save the seeds. The plants will remain covered and hopefully survive the colder weather and freezing nights this weekend; but I will put some heavier weight remay on them tomorrow.

Since today is the last good weather before rain and freezing nights this weekend, I need to plant a few things and dig up one of the aji lemonade pepper plants which is loaded with unripened peppers. It will be joining the other potted pepper plants in the studio.

A large Indian blend food order arrived yesterday and now that I have the fresh turmeric I'll be making one of the S.E. Asian recipes from that new cookbook - Kyet-Tha Khauk-Swe-Byoke (another Burmese dish I can't pronounce!). It's a spicy chicken, noodle dish with coconut milk, fish sauce, shallots, etc.I hope we love this one as much as the Burmese pork recipe I made last week. I'll get a lot of the prep done this morning and that may allow me to get a bit of studio time after planting.

Potters of Japan part 2 video

Going to enjoy a lazy morning catching up with a bunch of magazines, then afternoon brunch with visiting relatives and back to lazy mode for the evening. In between I'll be popping a lot of vitamin C, immune system boosters, and anti cold/flu concoctions to relieve these symptoms. Three weeks dealing with this bug is enough!

I've been using this down time to do a lot of studio paperwork, sketching, etc. Yesterday I went through the first cone 6 soda test tiles and made followup notes. Almost every one of the flashing slips was too dry as is, so all will need tweaking before another cone 6 test firing. Changing the soda mix and instead of using all soda ash, replacing all or part of it with sodium bicarb with an addition of borax might help to flux these flashing slips without too much alteration.

The best flashing slip out of about eight or more, in that firing, was Randy's, which has some high iron fireclay and I think that iron helped with the fluxing because a 70 grolleg, 30 N.Sy. slip was dryer than the Randys, which has less Neph Sy. So I'm thinking some of these may not just need the Neph Sy upped, but may need some soda ash and/or borax additions as well.

Potters of Japan video

This Part 1 video of Potters of Japan has been generously shared on you tube. Enjoy!

We got a freeze last night and the garden looks pretty sad this morning. I'm not sure if the remay and towel coverings on some of my peppers plants saved them. After tonight, the rest of the week will be above freezing, so I'm hoping that will be enough to ripen some more of these peppers. If they survive these two freezing nights, I might dig up one or two of them and bring them indoors.

I changed my studio plan yesterday. Instead, I covered plants, harvested all the veggies I could and did some weeding. After that I was wiped and decided to spend time on glaze chemistry before going to friends for a lovely shrimp dinner. This darned virus thing is on another re-run since yesterday so I'll try to get some studio time after breakfast if these chills go away and I perk up. Otherwise, I'll just work on this paper pile and glaze project.

I've been going through my glaze recipe books this week and making notes on C6 glazes to batch and test; and re-calculating some cone 10 recipes to try to get them to work at cone 6. It's a big project and one I want to and need to do, if I'm serious about changing to cone 6 soda in the future.

Drying herbs

This Thai basil drying on my dining room table created an interesting pattern and reminds me of a Japanese scroll painting.

Got all the pots slipped yesterday but will have to do some touch up of the slip and decorate a a couple of them today. Spent the evening still going through glaze books and doing some pot sketching - was even dreaming of work last night.

Looks like we're getting the freeze tonight, that we escaped last night, so I'll be covering some pepper plants and harvesting what I can and hope for the best. After two nights of low temperatures, we'll have several days of above freezing at night and hopefully the last of those pepper will ripen enough to be used.

Time to get to the studio for the day. Since I don't have to cook tonight I can get in a full day.

Snow on the way

Wow, rain turning to snow tonight. That might be the end of my pepper plants if I don't get some waterproof covers for them.

Yesterday was a busy studio day, and as always, never quite getting as much done as I wanted; but some pots got trimmed, handles and knobs made and attached,etc. I had to take time to clean the studio fridge (the one I've been using as a damp cupboard), because the house fridge and freezer are over stuffed and we needed to thin it out.

I worked till 4:30 and came in to prepare dinner. A headache and aching back made food prep a real chore; but the new recipe I made was a hit, and I had dinner on the table in about 40 minutes or less.

I can't even pronounce the Burmese dish I made: Wet-Tha-Khauk-Swe-Gyaw. It's a stir fry with thinly sliced pork, noodles, onions, chiles, fish sauce,garlic, ginger, soy sauce and celery. The best part is that we have leftovers for tonight.

I'm looking forward to making more recipes from this South East Asian cook book.

Well, just finished breakfast and getting a large on line order in for Indian groceries, so it's time to head to the studio for the day.

Will Baker

Here's another amazing wood/soda fired bottle of Will Baker's from this years Spruce Pine Potters market - a spectacular piece!

Finally getting to the studio this morning to trim pots. It's a rainy day so cleaning kiln shelves outdoors on my new saw horses set up, will have to wait till the weekend when the sun is due to reappear.

Since most of yesterday was taken up with driving back and forth to Burnsville for our osteo treatments, lunch out afterwards and then dinner prep when I got home, my only pottery related time was spent going through some glaze books noting some likely cone 6 glaze candidates for a planned December cone 6 test soda firing. Even when you can't get into the studio there's always some other work related things to occupy your time.

Sausage fried peppers and onions heroes

Enjoying some predawn quiet time after a busy, tiring day yesterday. The plan was to set up the saw horses and clean kiln shelves after trimming pots; but I decided to let the trimming wait - good thing, because when I opened the box containing the saw horses, I was faced with more parts than I could count. I started around 10am, took a lunch break and worked till 3:30 - close to 5 hours for me to get those two saw horses assembled and do a bit of kiln room sweeping and tidying.

By the time I was finished with that chore and setting trays under all the plants and trees that I brought indoors, watering them and feeding Bonnie kitty, I was wiped, so I called it a day. I took about an hour break for email and some paper work before starting dinner.

Fortunately dinner was easy - fried Italian sweet sausages, a big, sliced red onion and four sweet Italian and bell peppers from the garden and a half of a hot one. Once the sausages were browned, I added some water and red wine in the pan, salt and pepper and covered it and cooked them on low for about 25 minutes, removed the cover and turned the heat to medium high to reduce the liquid to a glaze. I served them on warmed, crunchy hero shaped rolls. We skipped the cheese for dessert because Jim had some for his lunch. Instead, we had some pumpkin pie with whipped cream and a glass of wine. It was another busy, but very good and beautiful Indian summer day in the mountains.

Today is a day for my osteo treatment so that and lunch out are going to take up half the day; and there probably won't be any time for the studio. By the time I get home it will be time to start thinking about dinner which may just be a simple pasta with fresh tomatoes, capers and olives (pasta putanesca) since I have a very large amount of cherry tomatoes on hand that we harvested two days ago.

Courtney Martin eye candy

Here's a peek at more wonderful work of some of our Bakersville neighbors - Courtney Martins wood fired work on left and Shane Mickey's new soda fired pieces on the right, at this years Spruce Pine Potters market. The show was so crowded I had to settle for these quickly taken shots.

Going to try to get a bit earlier studio start to trim some pots this morning and in the afternoon I'll set up my new plywood top on the saw horses in the driveway and get my kiln shelves sanded. This is the last day of this Indian summer weather before the cold and rain arrives tomorrow, so I must get this job done today.

Yesterday we drove to Banner Elk to Lowe's for plywood and other items, and then some food shopping. Because it was warm and we had our dog Bodhi with us, we decided to grab something to eat at McDonalds and eat in the car. The french fries were soggy and barely lukewarm. McDonalds needs to work on their quality control!

On the way home we stopped at one of the road side stands about bought some freshly made kettle and caramel corn and munched some on the way home. That made up for the lousy lunch.

It was a nice drive, though. There's still some good fall color up there.

Once we got the car unloaded, I filled the new window box that I bought at Lowes and transplanted my basil seedlings which are now enjoying a sunny spot in our kitchen greenhouse window.

After a busy day I was happy to have some decent leftovers for an easy dinner. Tonight I'm making Italian sausage heroes, fried with onions and peppers from our garden. We have some lovely artisan cheeses from Murray's in New York which we'll have with some fruit for dessert. Life is good!

Nachos and margaritas

The day was so full of "have to's", that one thing just led to another and I never got the studio time I wanted other than covering the pots before breakfast, that I threw the day before.

After breakfast, I made a mushroom bisque and packed up enough for two dinners and got those in the freezer, and set a little aside for us for lunch.
Then I got the veggies prepped for our nachos dinner. By then, it was time for lunch.

After lunch I had to clean off all my tropical and other tender potted plants and move them, with a bit of Jim's help with the larger pots, into the studio till spring.

Then I headed to the garden to harvest and cover all the peppers and basil because of a frost warning. I also dug up the sweet potato bed and found out what I already thought - the critters ate all of them! Well, to be fair, they actually left me two tiny ones about the size of a small chili pepper. :-(The forest critters really helped themselves to a lot of my veggies this year - more than they ever have.

Jim and I also harvested a large amount of cherry tomatoes (which keep coming and coming). I picked what looks like the last of the green beans, some herbs for drying, one of the French pumpkins and Swiss chard for a friend.

By the time all that was done it was time to start dinner - nachos and margaritas. After dinner and double margaritas, we were ready to call it a night, and at eight o'clock we headed for the bedroom to watch our favorite Brit com "As Time Goes By", followed by an episode Inspector Lewis on Netflix. All in all, it was a very good, productive day even though I didn't get any studio work done.

Today I need to get to Banner Elk for a piece of plywood to use as a top for my new saw horses. My kiln shelves need grinding and coating and I'm planning on getting that done tomorrow since it's going to be the last, warm day this week.

Gay Smith display at Spruce Pine Potters market

Here's some morning eye candy - Gay Smith's wonderful soda fired work on display at this years Spruce Pine Potters market.

Today is going to be a mixture of activity. I was in the studio at first light covering the pots I threw yesterday. After breakfast I have to make a mushroom bisque, then I'll head to the studio for a couple of hours to finish and trim some of those pots.

Since there's a frost warning tonight, I'll stop working mid afternoon so Jim and I can move all the tropical plants indoors for winter. I'll also have to harvest whatever veggies are ready probably beans and peppers. The pumpkins and squash would actually benefit by a bit of frost as will the swiss chard and the couple of leeks that the critters didn't eat. I picked the seasons last ripe tomatoes this week, and I'll be using them in tonight's nachos.

Claudia Dunaway at this years Spruce Pine Potters market

Here's a quickly taken photo of Claudia Dunaways display at this years Spruce Pine Pottery market - very nice work.

I didn't take many pictures at the market this year. Arriving later than usual, I found the place very crowded and it was difficult to find those little openings past the hoards of people to sneak a photo. Jim was waiting in the car with our rescue dog Bodhi, and asked me not to tarry too long, so I didn't really get enough time to really appreciate all the wonderful work. Next year I'll go back to my normal, early arrival time.

Finally got the last pots slipped and all but one plate decorated. I'll finish that this morning; and probably throw a few more small things to top off this bisque load. It's a windy and so far, sunny morning, so I might be able to get a few fresh thrown pots outdoors to dry enough to trim later this afternoon.

Will Baker wood and soda fired pots

These are Will Baker's soda/wood fired pots which were available this past weekend at the Spruce Pine Potters market. He and his equally talented bride, Joy Tanner, are serving a residency at the Energy exchange and firing the new wood pallet kiln that Mark Peters designed and built. They are getting some incredible work from this kiln.

Yesterday was another day of mixed activity - after breakfast meeting with our tree man, walking around pointing out where I wanted saplings and under brush removed, then on to the studio for several hours before I had to quit and come in to make dinner.

I got a few more pots slipped and got them all decorated and today I should be able to finish slipping and decorating the last few pots to top off this bisque load.

Dinner last night was an easy, but delicious pork tenderloin browned and roasted on the stove top with some garlic, thyme and red wine - another keeper recipe ready in less than an hour. I'll post it on my other blog, at: www.plantharvestcook.blogspot.com
later.

Bucatini all' Amatriciana

Yesterday was the first full day of activity I've had in a couple of weeks. In the morning I baked bread, then got about 5 hours of studio time finishing, cleaning up and slipping a few pots, and starting a new shelf of pots in the bisque kiln. I quit around 3 to feed kitty and start dinner and good thing I did.

I was going to try a new Lidia Bastianich recipe and after soaking hot peppers overnight and getting them pureed, grating and toasting bread crumbs, and starting the simple sauce, I realized that this would not be a dish we'd enjoy. We love hot, spicy foods, but 3T of hot pepper puree with just some oil,garlic, and toasted, fresh bread crumbs to complete the sauce would have probably burned our insides. I tested it with just 1T of the puree and that was too hot! So I quickly changed course and found another bucatini pasta dish and basically made that one and added the toasted bread crumbs from the Bastianich recipe. It was a hit!

Jim said, "I hope you remember what you did". Basically I used the second recipe with just the addition of the bread crumbs, omitting the pepperonici flakes and instead, adding enough of that pepperonici paste to get it to the level of heat we'd be able to tolerate. I'll put the recipe on my cooking blog:
www.plant harvest cook.blogspot.com

This morning I have someone coming to cut down some saplings which are encroaching on my grape arbor and vegetable terraces and a couple of other places, then it will be back to the studio to finish slipping the last few pots and hopefully I'll be able to start decorating. I'll probably work till around 3:30 or 4 then come in to start dinner which is going to be a simple roasted pork loin, roasted garlic rosemary potatoes,green beans and apple sauce. Our apple trees were a bust this year otherwise I'd be making some spiced cooked apples to go with this.

Right now it's time for breakfast - kielbasa and fresh apple cake (thanks to Saylor's, our local apple orchard).

More colors of fall

It's a good bread baking morning - cold and rainy, so I have a loaf of a new whole wheat recipe rising in the bread machine and it should be done before I head to the studio.

This is the first day in a couple of weeks where I don't have outside appointments and other "must do" garden and household chores, and am feeling well enough to get an early studio start. Hopefully I can get a lot accomplished today before I have to head in to make dinner. Tonight I'm making another new Lidia Bastianich vegetarian pasta recipe with bucatini pasta and a very spicy sauce with a pepperoici paste addition. I've had the peppers soaking overnight and will make the paste later.

Beautiful colors of fall

We had a lovely drive over the Roan to Johnson City and the fall colors were fabulous and they're not yet at peak color!

I had to get to Home Depot to get some tempered hardboard and a few other studio and house items as well, followed by some wine and grocery shopping and lunch at the Indian buffet. By the time we unpacked the car, put everything away and fed the cat, it was after four, so the studio will have to wait till tomorrow.

After such a big lunch I think some fruit, cheese and a glass of wine is in order for dinner.

Spruce Pine Potters Market tomorrow

Tomorrow is the Spruce Pine Potters Market and if you are in the area, it's definitely a must visit - great potters, beautiful and varied work and incredible weather at the moment.

We just got back from a lovely drive to Banner Elk - had lunch,did some grocery shopping, and checked out a new gallery and a local country store.It was a lovely surprise to see how much fall color they already have.

My lunch, a meatball hero, was huge (couldn't even finish half of it), so Bodhi got some and I brought the other half home for dinner - same with Jim and his steak hero. It's just as well I don't have to cook tonight. I'm deliciously tired from the lovely drive and shopping.

The past two days I've gotten almost no studio time - still not feeling 100%, so I opted to spend most of my time sketching pot ideas, cooking and doing computer cleanup and some glaze chemistry. I'm in the process of making lists of what cone 6 glazes I want to test in the December wood/soda firing in the pallet kiln at the Energy Exchange. I have a lot more glaze chemistry to do to try to get some 6 versions of some glazes I'm using in my cone 10-12 firings. Most of the current bisque and ready to bisque pots are for the cone 10 soda firing but I still need about two full studio days to get this latest group slipped and decorated. This flu type bug has set me back two weeks so far, in my planned mid October firing date, which now looks more like it will be late October or early November. Fortunately, the only deadline I've had is of my own making - which is how I like it!

Hsin-Chuin-Lin video

This squaring and paddling is similar to what I have to do this morning to finish one of my small squared jars. Frankly, if I had to spend as much time on my jars, as he does on his, I'd either skip making them or make a mold of a master and cast the rest.

There was no studio time yesterday because I had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon In Asheville, about my hip. The bad news is that the hip is going to need replacement; but the good news is that there's a new procedure which reduces healing time from 12 weeks to 5. This new technique doesn't have the post operative activity limitations as the old one either. So I'll probably be having this done sometime in February or early March, and be fully healed time for spring planting.

I made a few other stops, first to the Asian grocery store, then on to lunch at the seafood store/restaurant. I bought some sea bass fillets that I'm going to use for a Burmese dish Ngar-asat-kyaw. It's crispy fried, turmeric coated and marinated fish with crispy chili, garlic and shallots. I'll get the dish's veggies and some garden beans prepped done breakfast so I can work in the studio till 4:30. After a Wally world stop for some pick up groceries, we headed home just in time for me to cook a couple of healthy hot dogs for a light, quick dinner, and crash for the night.

The new electric reduction kiln, The Fallonator

Someone kindly emailed me a link to The Fallonator - the new electric reduction kiln which I mentioned in yesterdays' blog. It uses electric for the actual firing and a small bottle of propane for reduction, along with a digital controller so the kiln can fire automatically and I gather, adjust the amount of reduction.

The Fallonator site doesn't mention the price of the kiln which I believe is available in sizes from 5 - 7 cu feet, but the the puttgarden site says it's $10,00 (probably for the 7cu ft one)- pretty pricy for a small electric kiln, even with the reduction apparatus. If you are already the owner of an electric kiln, you can get on the pre construction list for the $1500 gas reduction unit which they say is very easy to install on your existing electric kiln.

One of the sites mentioned that it's not to be used to do a full cone 10 reduction firing; but instead, is meant for firing down in reduction, yet the main Fallonator site I looked at this morning, doesn't say that. So, I don't know if there have been changes in the design lately which enables a full reduction firing or if the information on another site was erroneous; but if you're interested in this kiln, make sure you find out what if any limitations there are with the reduction firing.

Here are the two main links I found with pictures and information on the kiln and related products.

http://puttgarden.com/crystal/tech/Vendors/fallon/fallonator.html or
http://www.fallonator.com

A do it yourself, inexpensive way of doing the same thing, would be to just get a tiny burner (a small, weed burning torch available for about $50 or less from a place like Harbor Freight or similar, would work and it probably would come with the hose and connector for small propane tank), and set the burner securely in front the bottom peep by setting in for instance on and surrounded by some stacked bricks or concrete blocks to secure it enough, and introduce the gas when you want to reduce; and if you have an oxyprobe or similar, you can insert that in one of the middle or upper peeps and pretty well accomplish the same thing. The only thing it won't do is fire automatically; but you'd save over $1400. You'd probably have to get a top vent for the kiln or fire it under cover outdoors; but I'm assuming that you would have to do the same with their kiln, since it's not pictured with a top vent installed.

I don't know what elements are installed on the Fallonator. They mention heavy duty elements; but don't specify if they're any different than other well insulated cone 10 electric kilns, like my Skutt, which are currently on the market. So you might want to ask about those elements. There has to be a reason for that big price tag, so maybe they have some globar type or other new very expensive elements installed.

In the late 80's or early 90's I had a tiny burner made for my little cone 10 electric test kilns, by Nils Lou, which used the same principle. In that instance, I just drilled a small port under the kiln and placed the burner under the port.

BRRRR

At least some of my pepper plants are enjoying the safety of my studio for a couple of days.

We're still in this unseasonable cold spell, which fortunately, will be breaking Tuesday. Tonight it's going down to the low 30's, so I'll be covering a few more tender plants and leaving outdoor lights on to generate a bit of heat to help. I'm grateful that we didn't get the snow that they got in Boone last night!

Since I'm really tired of waiting for this cold/flu thing to totally leave,(mainly, I'm bored!), I'm going to try to get some studio time today. The past two days have been spent going through years of recipe clippings and cards and getting them sorted and filed into various recipe boxes and folders. With that job done, I'm ready to get back to work even if my energy isn't 100%.

Talking to Tom Turner at the party last night, about kilns and glazes, I found myself in firing envy, when he said his new Cone 9 crystalline pots were firing while we were partying. And of course, my husband Jim, who has been bugging me about switching to electric firing in my old age, was giving me that "I've been telling you to do this" look! LOL

I have a base formula for a cone 6 crystalline glaze that a friend in our glaze testing club/group in Oregon, gave me over fifteen years ago; and like Tom's current crystalline glazes, this one doesn't run either. I should play around with those a bit this winter, since I contemplated crystalline firing at that time, and amassed a lot of information on the process. After serious consideration, and after making pots and saucers, I realized that I just didn't want to get into that whole thing of having to make saucers, chiseling them off the pots and grinding those glazed bases, not to mention how often elements would have to be replaced. I know you don't have to make pots you like, you just have to like the pots you make; but I realized, that although I might like those pots; I really wouldn't enjoy the process.

Tom mentioned someone (I think he said in Florida), who's designed an electric reduction kiln that's doesn't destroy the elements after a few firings. I don't know if it has globar elements, or if it's some new technology; but it does sounds intriguing! I'd like to get an electric kiln that's smaller than my large Skutt but larger than my tiny test kilns and one that reduces would be a great studio addition. I don't know if this is a kiln that was just designed for personal use or if there are plans to produce it commercially; but I will definitely try to keep track of it.

Today I need to finish up some pots that have been under plastic a few days. I just hope they're still soft enough to alter and finish. Time to get to work.