9 hours.

That's how much time was spent in the studio today. 9 hours. It was pretty sweet. Here's what happened:

1. Small and mid-sized pots. A number of the them. Trimmed and decorated those from last night, as well as threw some more today. Used up more of my red clay. The usual.
   
   
   That little green one is really quite small - 3 inches tall, 4 inches across, maybe. The other two are using one of my new slips. It's supposed to be a "purple-brown." Not sure if that's how it will turn out, but we'll see. Trying something kinda new there in the decoration of the red one. Gotta try new things every once in a while or you get stale.
   
   Here's another red pot. It's a little bigger than those - maybe 8 inches tall, 10 inches across. Actually, it looks like it may be taller than it is wide. But then, I'm not sure. I only made it, ya know? It's not like I should know how big it is...
   
   
   Keep in mind, everything will shrink in the firings, so all sizing here is pretty much irrelevant. The only thing you can really count on is that they won't be any bigger when they're done than my guestimations here.
   
2. Big bowl. The on in the picture there. It came from 10 pounds of clay. I think I like it. It's a good 13 inches across, pushing 12 inches tall.
   
   
   It's only got about an inch of clearance on this shelf, and there's not that much space between the shelves. Hopefully I don't break the foot off of this one.
   
3. Glazed a big bowl. I'm trying to avoid glazing things this month, as the firing gets a little expensive. But I wouldn't mind having this bowl finished sooner than later.
   
4. Recycled. I had some slop from throwing last night out drying, so I had to wedge and knead the slops, which became nice clay. The nice clay became some nice pots. Like the ones up in section "1."
   
5. Continued working onthe shape of the "decent sized" vase from last night, seen here. I lost a little bit of the height in trimming some of the weight out of the bottom, but I'm much pleased with the overall shape, specifically in the collared neck and shoulders there. Yes, clay jars have necks and shoulders.
   
   
   I think this picture is before it got shorter and stouter. But still a nice representation. There's another picture below.
   
6. Finally, a big vase. Two pieces, 20 pounds of clay, 21 inches tall, and (originally) quite a bit thicker in the base than it ought to have been. Here it is assembled, into one piece.
   
   
   Still lacking significantly in definition of shape, I think it looks like some kind of cocoon, or an alien larva. That could just be me. This took up the majority of the day. Especially the part where I needed to be patient, and not rush things. You know, the usual things that if ignored will ruin a nice pot like this.
   
   
   Anyhow, here's the final shape, and the other big guy. It could be noted that it is 21 inches in this picture, which means it was undoubtedly taller before it became wider.
   
   I'm still trying to get a handle on how much a good-sized pot should weigh. I'm pretty sure these are both weighing in a couple of pounds more than a pot their sizes should be, but not to the degree of morbid obesity. If pottery had a BMI, these would probably clock in at 26 or 27.

Finally, my friend Jon stopped by in the evening to see the studio, check out some pottery in action, and get his hands dirty. It was nice to have a visitor, and good to take a break from the more intense work of the day. He also brought me some peanut-butter chocolate chip bars that were delicious. I joined him for dinner before heading back into the studio to finish up the vases and do some serious cleaning. You don't spend 9 hours in the studio without making a decent mess.

That's all for now. I'll be taking some sort of hiatus this week, I'm sure. I have some non-throwing pottery projects to deal with. After a weekend like this I think it will be healthy to take a couple days off from the studio. Fun though it is.

On an unrelated note, U2 is streaming their new album, No Line on the Horizon, in its entirety from their MySpace page. It's set to release March 2nd and I'm pretty stoked. It seems to me to be a tonal collision of 1988's Rattle and Hum and 1997's Pop. Raw, classic U2 for the 21st Century. It seems that everybody has their own take on it. Rolling Stone gave it 5 stars and proclaimed it their best album since Achtung Baby. It may be true. Check it out.

Leave a comment, shoot me an e-mail. Have a great week!