Ah! Summer!

It is summer time now, so I am not good about staying in routines.  I think this probably helps balance out the rest of the year when I am scheduled every second of every day.  At least this is what I say to myself to justify my lack of direction, lack of discipline, and general laziness these days.  Riiiiight.

I have been in the studio working some (even though I have not been good about updating my blog).  The soup mugs that I made as a special request have been glaze fired and much to my surprise, the "red" glaze ended up being a very nice shade of brown.  NOT what we were looking for at all.  So I'm going to send them through another glaze fire to see if the color will change.  If not, oh well.  That's how it goes sometimes.

I've thrown a possible replacement for the cannister lid that self destructed the other week.  We shall see if it will fit after it is bisque fired.  Getting the size right is tricky when one of the pieces has already dried and fired once.

I've also made a number of other mugs.  I had someone ask about what mugs I had for sale not long ago and I realized that I really didn't have much.  So three sets of 4 mugs later, I will have some to look at!  (Well more like 2 sets of 4 and one set of 3 since I managed to poke a hole in the bottom of one....can we say too thin on the bottom?)  I'm experimenting with a new mug shape and continue to work on pulling handles.  The shape of a pulled handle I think works better with the new mug shape.  My husband Jeff stopped by one day while I was working on some of them and commented that the 3 mugs I had lined up looked like 3 Mile Island.  Those of you who are old enough to know what this means can now visualize what these mugs look like.

In other news, I am happy to report that I continue to not drive my car into the kiln that is sitting in my garage.  This is a good thing but I worry every time I park the car.  I still really want to use my new wheel.  If I get the guts to do it, I might just bring some clay home and do a little throwing here at the house.  A concern over the lack of pounding board (in other words, no place to work up clay) is causing me to pause.  Well, that and the fact that there is so much other work to do here.  It works so much better for me to go someplace else.  I am so easily distracted here.  There's the yard, the garden, the dog, the cats, the horses all clamoring for my attention when I am here.  Ok, so the dog mostly just sleeps nearby, but there is always tons that needs doing here.  Yes, I need to leave so that I can focus on pottery.

That reminds me.  I need to go let the horses out. They've probably finished their breakfast by now!