Slow week

I am going to apologize right up front for the lack of pictures in this post. My camera is sitting at the studio, and to be honest there aren't many pictures on it at the moment anyway. The general feeling of having to force myself to sit down and work has continued on into the past week. I have managed to get a couple of things done, or at least started and I will try to remember to get some pictures today when I go to finish them up. I got a bunch of new yarn bowls done up and have managed to get them to dry so far without cracking. I decided not to take the risk so these will be slip free, I am not sure what I will do with them from here, I suspect that this is a sign from the universe that I should start testing out the addition of cobalt to my normal "clear" glaze to see if I can get a blue glaze since someone asked me about that very thing. 

I also did up a handful of mugs and tankards. The mugs got finished off with some decorative additions and then slipped, and a couple of them where fluted on the wheel and then expanded, I kinda like the affect. The tankards all now have handles, I probably should have gone in yesterday to slip them but I just couldn't motivate myself to drive to the studio so I will hopefully get them slipped today. I wrapped them up pretty well in plastic so it should be okay. 

I decided that I really didn't like the way that the thrown trays were coming out so they got broken up and tossed back in to recycle. I haven't given up on the idea, I just think that it needs a little more thought and experimentation. 

Speaking of recycle, I find myself completely out of usable clay. I have pretty much decided that I am not going to buy anymore of the clay that I have been using. It really just isn't doing what I want it to and I get almost the same color and easily the same texture with the local clay that I dig so I am going to stick with that. I do however have a rather large amount of clay that needs to be recycled so I started that process this week. I try to let my scraps and rejects dry out completely before I start recycling them. It works out much better that way, when you mix them and water they tend to just melt away down to slip so you get fewer lumps. I also add a good glug or two of vinegar to the mix. This helps it to be more plastic so there is less aging time necessary, although it certainly benefits from it. I also found a partial batch of the dug clay tucked away outside. It has benefited from several freeze thaw cycles so far this winter so it should be rather pleasant to work with. At the moment it is a solid block of ice so I will have to wait for it to thaw out before I can work with it. That may take a few days. 

They are forecasting 50's all week this week so I think that I am going to attempt to get several firings done. I can definitely get a few bisque loads through the kiln and I might possibly be able to get a glaze load done as well.

Well that pretty much sums up the week, I will try to remember to get some pics today and get them up and also to be more diligent about getting them and video in the future. Off to work now, see you soon.