We finally reached the handyman who again, promises to show up this morning. It was raining earlier, so that ends the possibility of him finishing up the decking area near one corner of the pool so I can set up my container garden. So, instead, if and when he shows, I'm going to have him put together all the garage and studio metal shelving units which the movers took apart but didn't re-assemble. Once that's done I'll be able to start organizing the garage and studio.
Even though I still haven't unpacked the studio and still have my office to unpack, I'm starting to think about the direction my work is going to go, since my only viable choice which this huge, recent change of location and lifestyle that fate has forced upon us, is electric firing.
Living in a community with codes and covenants means no smelly gas firing and no working at home, even part time! So now, I will be a hobby potter, still working hard at whatever choice I make once I can get my hands on clay again. What that clay will be is still up in the air; but at this point, I'm thinking it might be fun to go in a totally different direction from the cone 10-11 soda/salt work I've been doing for the past ten years or more. The idea of earthenware and playing with all those colorful under glazes ware is appealing; and I must say that the thought of just setting the kiln on automatic instead of dealing with 30 hour soda/salt firing is a big plus at the age of 72!
I'm going to get some earthenware samples when the time comes and see if I can fire them up to cone 3 for a stronger finished product. I've been thinking about this for a while but I still have a lot of unpacking and gardening to do so it will be another six weeks or so before I can even re-supply the studio (gave 90% of my raw materials away) and get it organized. Before we left North Carolina I had started a notebook with collected information on earthenware slips and glazes. Most of those are in the traditional earthenware temperatures, so I'll be spending some evenings playing with my glaze software to tweak some of those up to cone 3 limits.
Life has hit us with some lemons in the past few months and it's time to make some lemonade!
Even though I still haven't unpacked the studio and still have my office to unpack, I'm starting to think about the direction my work is going to go, since my only viable choice which this huge, recent change of location and lifestyle that fate has forced upon us, is electric firing.
Living in a community with codes and covenants means no smelly gas firing and no working at home, even part time! So now, I will be a hobby potter, still working hard at whatever choice I make once I can get my hands on clay again. What that clay will be is still up in the air; but at this point, I'm thinking it might be fun to go in a totally different direction from the cone 10-11 soda/salt work I've been doing for the past ten years or more. The idea of earthenware and playing with all those colorful under glazes ware is appealing; and I must say that the thought of just setting the kiln on automatic instead of dealing with 30 hour soda/salt firing is a big plus at the age of 72!
I'm going to get some earthenware samples when the time comes and see if I can fire them up to cone 3 for a stronger finished product. I've been thinking about this for a while but I still have a lot of unpacking and gardening to do so it will be another six weeks or so before I can even re-supply the studio (gave 90% of my raw materials away) and get it organized. Before we left North Carolina I had started a notebook with collected information on earthenware slips and glazes. Most of those are in the traditional earthenware temperatures, so I'll be spending some evenings playing with my glaze software to tweak some of those up to cone 3 limits.
Life has hit us with some lemons in the past few months and it's time to make some lemonade!
Well then, make it lemonade in an earthenware pitcher! I love earthenware and I know yours will be brilliant, no matter what you do! Best wishes :)
ReplyDeleteAll those glazes that come in beautiful colors can make earthenware fun! Enjoy!
ReplyDelete