Time to Recap a Few Days

Well, it's Monday.  I guess that doesn't really mean much, except that I do have a few days worth of studio-ing to recap.  I actually ended last week on a bit of a sour note, which was too bad considering I actually had a pretty constructive couple days of throwing in the middle there.  Wednesday afternoon (after my last post!) I put in a good spell that gave me some nice vases.  I felt pretty good about it, and that's my story.



Wednesday afternoon vases.

Thursday I stayed out of the studio, working on some other stuff around the house.  I was however delightfully surprised to receive a delivery in the afternoon with some more supplies for my studio.  As part of a promotional rebate for purchasing a new Brent wheel, I got to order a certain amount of free glaze from Amaco.  I'm very excited (hopefully soon!) to get firing and discovering my new glaze palette, although I now have perhaps a larger palette than I really might know what to do with.  It may have been prudent for me wait until I had explored the Amaco glazes I already have and then just ordered a stock of my favorites, but I don't see how that could have been as much fun! 

More new glazes!  They came in the mail!  It was like magic!

Friday I got back into the studio for a little bit of fun, namely taking those Wednesday vases and putting some mountains on them.  After that I thought it was finally time for me to try out the second clay body I got to throw with - a white B-Clay stoneware mix similar to the B-mix I used at the Guild.  And that's where the fun ended.  Basically, it went very poorly, and I found myself severely discouraged.  Went through a decent spat of clay with not much to show in the end.  I guess I had to have my first unproductive day in the studio at some point.  Bummer!

But at least these mountains are pretty, right?

Fortunately, the discouragement didn't last too long.  Krystal's on the road for work, so I was able to head back to work for several hours of Sunday throwing.  Had to get back on the horse, so to speak, and took my white clay back to the wheel.  It was a much better outcome this time around, which is good.  Good to know that I didn't make some horrible mistake in stocking up on some clay that I couldn't throw. 

Look what I did!

On top of that, I threw myself a few more vases that will probably be in need of mountains, and another bowl with the blue interior.  One of these blue bowls I threw last week ended up with a crack in the bottom as it dried, so it had to be thrown out.  Won't be long and I'll need to start recycling clay again!

See my nifty scale in the back there?  One of my nifty new  clay toys.  It's great!

That's the scoop, folks.  Not a whole lot else to report from here.  Where ever you might be, I hope you're staying warm.  It's been a pretty bitter cold weekend in these parts, but at least it's been sunny, which is more than most of the country can say right now, apparently.  Have a good night!