Finally a weekend without a hurricane churning out in the Gulf, yaaaahoo! Saturday I taught a Photoshop Elements workshop. Basically the workshop was about working with adjustment layers to change colors. It was a small class but i think the smallness help them grasp the content. I taught a workshop a couple of months back that had 15 students, it was a bit hard to get to everyone when they were having difficulties understanding something. In October I am on schedule to teach Photoshop Elements as a once a week class and some workshops too. I am happy for the extra work.

Monday night was pottery class. As planned we coiled. I will admit not being a fan of coils. I loved coiled pottery, I just don’t like making coiled pots. So I went in early to roll out some coils for my demo. Past experience has taught me to preroll coils cause if i wait til class is in session my demo take forever. So once all the students arrived I demoed my coil pot. It went smoothy. Everyone managed to roll some coils and build a vessel. What more can a teacher want…

My postal scale finally came. I got it off of Ebay. I weighed a couple of packages of margarine to test it. Who’d a thought I’d find a maker of margarine that didn’t give me all the margarine they said I was suppose to get but yep the first box of margarine didn’t weigh a pound, I thought my new scale was off but after weighing a couple of other boxes that were in the fridge, it was the first brand of margarine that was wrong. So happy to have gotten a scale now i don’t have to run to the post office everytime i need to weigh a package before i list it in my etsy store. Now i need bigger boxes to package my bigger bowls in so i can get accurate estimates on shipping. So many things to think about when you sell online.

Textured Pinch Pot

I teach Clay Handbuilding on Monday nights to adults. My class is small right now tho 1 student larger than our first meeting (a late enrollie). So tonight we made pinch pots. I like to start a class building pinch pots because it just seems right to start clay students on the same clay path that primitive man once followed. Pinch pots are one of the oldest ways of working with clay. It doesn’t take any fancier tools than a thumb and a finger to make and you can make them as primitive or finished looking as your skills will let you.

I think my students did rather well, most making more than one in the time allowed. I love to see excitement as they discover that such a simple technique can make useful objects. We had cat bowls, dipping bowls, some plain, some textured, some round, some organic…a nice mix of experimentation.

My own work I have been playing with square plate shapes. I have been pleased with most my results. I am still going to continue experimenting in the square plate direction for a while. This weekend I listed some snowmen ( http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14961263 ) pins on etsy. I don’t know if it is too soon to try selling winter items yet, time will tell. This is my first venture into online selling. I sold my first piece last week, that was exciting, I guess it was too much to hope the sales to just keep rolling on in…I can dream right

Well, Hurricane Ike is out there in the Gulf. I’m not so worried about him. I don’t think he will come and shatter my world tho I am fairly sure he has and will shatter someone elses. I do hate storms out there twirling around. My sinuses go all crazy with all the pressure of a hurricane passing. I am so ready for this hurricane season to wind down, too bad we are smack dab in the middle of the peak.

Well next week class moves on to coil pots. The classroom doesn’t have a clay extruder so we roll by hand. Its always fun to watch those coils thump around and the students get the hang of rolling a smooth coil. Its always the one you least expect that is the best coil roller. Bye til next week.

I went down to Fort Myers to buy some clay this weekend and they had one of my favorite clay bodies back in stock ‘Standard Clays #259.’ It is a nice all purpose ^6 clay body good for handbuilding and throwing. I can’t wait to use it. I have some plate prototypes to build for a possible commission. This clay will be perfect for that.

The ride down to Fort Myers was horrible. It was stormy and blinding rain most of the way. I passed a one vehicle accident on the way, I wasn’t there when it happened but I suspect hydroplaning. A large pickup truck had skidded into the ditch, the ditch was deep and wide and full of water. The water came almost up to the top of the hood. There were other people stopped to help the poor guy perched on his truck hood so I continued on…much more carefully and a tad slower too.

It was a slow day otherwise today and this past week was fairly uneventful. Hurricane Gustav out in the Gulf made me jittery and sleepless for a few day and nights, I know it wasn’t going landfall here but ever since Hurricane Charley in 2004 I’ve been storm shy something awful. We lost our roof during Charley and had to gut the house because of water damage so now when a storm gets in the Gulf I just don’t handle it well.

Well, I’ve ran out of words for tonight if i keep rambling I’ll just talk you guys to sleep.

Blue Chaos

Howdy and Hey…

The Kiln Goddess is new to the blogging world. Please bear(bare?) with her while she gains her bearings and gets her feet wet. I tried blogging once before but ran out of things to say. I’ll try to be more wordy from now on.

Lets talk clay. I love the medium of clay. Throwing it on the wheel, handbuilding functional forms, or creating sculptural art is just a great way to spend a day. I’ll admit i am partial to the wheel, it is magic. I sit there and make a bowl, i watch it form under my hand, I know i am doing it and yet it is still magic. How many people can say at the end of a day that they made magic happen.