SMASH....

La la la...here I am just taking some pics of new pots when........
SMASH!......and there goes the weekend:( My car needs a makeover.

Well I was trying to take pictures of my new cups this morning when we hear a load booming noise. "Is that thunder?" Michael asked. "No, I don't think so." I replied, looking up at the bright blue sky through the open window. As I looked a little closer to investigate I noticed our next door neighbor running up to our door yelling and quite upset. We ran to see what was wrong when he informed us that a lady had just hit my car and drove off. His sister-in-law took off in her car in hot pursuit! He immediately called the police as Michael and I stood there kinda dumbfounded with "wait...what...?" looks on our faces. The police rolled up sirens blazing while we (by "we" I mean the neighbors who totally had our backs) gave them directions to where our one neighbor and her sister had cornered the car. They actually got the driver to come back. We have the greatest neighbors. She was preg-o, chain smoking, didn't have a license, claimed to have peed herself and well....isn't that enough? She claimed to have driven away because our neighbor yelled at her. Duh, you hit a car, of course he yelled at you. And she also said she didn't see my car....you mean the big red one parked in front of the house along with all the other cars parked on the street? Anyway, we filed a police report and called the insurance companies. Hopefully this will all get sorted out but in the meantime my poor car is not drivable. We are supposed to be leaving for a weekend trip to NJ and next weekend we have to go to NC. Our stuff doesn't fit in Michael's car so we either have to have my car fixed by Thursday or get a nice rental that will fit all of our work plus the tent. Ugggg. I don't even want to think about it. I hope your weekend is filled with less exciting fireworks....at least the kind that are pretty.

It worked!!

My glaze came out, YAY!!!! Here are some pictures from my most recent firing. The solid blue is my new formula. The bentonite worked and it went on super nice. The "simple" dish is an experiment with brushing a stain under the final coat of glaze. I like the way it turned out but I think my clear was a little too thin this time around and I didn't get that thick glassy surface I like so much. My next challenge will be how to combine the two surfaces. The new one is a little too matt for the interior of vessels but I'm trying it out layered over the gloss to get a semi-matt. The next load will be out hopefully tomorrow and with any luck I'll have some good pictures to share next week.

2 firings 2 days...

Well it's amazing what the addition of 1% bentonite will do for a glaze formula (especially when you were supposed to put it in to begin with!). I haven't fired yet but it already feels better. Much more like a glaze that will stick to the pot! I don't have pictures yet but hopefully I will soon. My little kiln is getting quite the workout this week as it's already taken 2 bisque firings and as soon as it's cool enough it will be glazing, hopefully twice before our show this weekend. I did want to give a little sneak peek at these awesome keys I bought from etsy a few weeks ago. I made molds of them and am trying to incorporate them into the jewelry I need to make for an upcoming show. My original idea was to totally cast them in porcelain but I don't want to fire my kiln that high just for some keys so I'm going to see if I can try to make it work with my red clay. We'll see. I'll keep you posted on how that's turning out!