Roofing felt bats

If you aren't aware of this type of bat, here's a helpful video showing how to attach a roofing felt bat to your wheelhead using slip. This technique also works well using canvas instead of the the roofing felt. Both materials are readily available, lightweight, inexpensive and easy to store.

There was no studio time today; but I did get in the garden on this lovely, spring like day to prune one of my peach trees. Yesterday was an Asheville day for some food and wine shopping and my belated birthday dinner at PF Chang's with friends.

I did manage about an hour in the studio to finish and wax a couple of pots. There have been way too many things to keep me out of the studio this week, and tomorrow will be no exception. Since it's expected to be another wonderful, warm day like today,I'm going to take advantage of it and get some more pruning done and be back in the studio Monday when the temperatures are expected to drop down to the 40's.

Time to get started on a salad for dinner. I have my leftover Peking duck and Jim is opting for some crab cakes.

My ebay stamp purchase

I won the bid on this antique, wooden stamp on ebay yesterday. Anyone know if that's Tibetan or Chinese, or???? writing in the center. I thought it would be nice on some slab pieces with a transparent glaze like Amber celadon, etc.

We're getting a bit of sun peeking through after a rainy night. Yesterday we had a lovely drive over the mountain to Tennessee to do some shopping. There are hints of the great fall color to come and I think in a week to ten days we should be close to peak color.

Jim and I had a large lunch at the Indian buffet and then make several shopping stops at Home Depot, Sam's Club, Ross for Less etc. He got the squeegie he wanted and I got the replacement disk for my angle grinder so I can finish cleaning my kiln shelves today and a few other items for the studio. I was hoping to work right after breakfast, but the morning has slipped by with letter writing to family and catching up on emails. Since I'm still sore from hand scraping those shelves two days ago, I'm not feeling terribly motivated at the moment; but I will head out there as soon as I post this and take my morning vitamins.

Today's studio time will be finishing scraping kiln shelves and moving them into the studio and taking down the bag wall and cleaning out the fire box. Dinner is going to be easy - roast chicken dinner leftovers. After a big lunch yesterday I opted for buttered, salted popcorn with parmesan and cayenne for dinner, so we have two leftover meals for tonight and tomorrow night.