Feeling the Pressure

If you read this blog regularly, you know that we have been very busy this summer.  The past couple of weeks has been no exception.  Let me see if I can catch you up.

August 17 was the first day of classes at Cleveland Community College.  I've only got one "normal" class this semester, so the start of classes on campus wasn't really all that stressful for me.  I can say that now since we are a week and a half in and I've forgotten how freaked out I get about the first day of class.

August 17 was also an Uptown Art Walk and I was in the studio doing demonstrations for folks who came by that evening.  Gail and Lisa were both there working too, so we had stuff to show everyone about throwing, preparing bisque ware to glaze (Gail), and glazing (Lisa).

That night I made these 9 lumps of clay...

...into 9 mugs.

That was Thursday night.  On Friday, I got handles on all the mugs.  It seems like I did something else too, but I have no memory of what that was.  

Saturday, August 19 we headed out to Greensboro for my niece's 3rd birthday party.  (Her actual third birthday was Aug 17.)  Lots of kids playing on the new "playground" her daddy built for her.  Wish I had a picture of that.  It's an impressive playground.  

The highlight of the party was the visit by the ice cream truck.  Yep, all those kids, and possibly a large number of the adults in the group, went running to the street when they realized that the truck was stopped for the party.  I had no idea one could hire the ice cream truck (every time I type the words, I'm screaming in my head, "ICE CREAM TRUCK!!") for a party, but it is something that I will keep in mind next time I need to throw a party.  

Here's niece Fiona with her ice cream.

The next day, Sunday now, we headed to Mount Pleasant, SC to see our good friends Liz and Rob (and Andrew too) and to be in place to see the eclipse on Monday, Aug 21.  August 20 is actually my dad's birthday, but he encouraged us to get on the road early to avoid as much crazy eclipse traffic as possible. 

Here we are with our wonderful friends on the dock at Liz's parents house.  Jeff and I are sporting our cool eclipse glasses.

The difference between the almost total eclipse that folks in our neck of the woods saw and the actual total eclipse that we got to see is amazing.  I really worried that we were going to a lot of trouble for that last 2%....AND I AM SO GLAD THAT WE DID!  

This is looking across Charleston Harbor from the Prioleau's dock to Sullivan's Island. Notice the lights coming on over there.  

Photo credit to Liz for this one.

COMPLETELY worth missing work and being crazy behind the rest of this week.  

I know that this blog is supposed to be about pottery, but this was too awesome not to share.  It also explains a little bit why I've not had much pottery to share.  

I managed to get back to the studio a little bit on Thursday evening, a few hours Friday evening, and I was there all day today (Saturday).  My task for this weekend was glazing. 

I had so much bisque ware that it wouldn't all fit on the glazing table.  After 6 hours in the studio today, I have all but three pieces glazed, and the kiln is loaded up with #1 of two glaze fires.  My plan is to unload Monday after work and put the rest of the pieces in and fire them Monday night.  Here's hoping that my plan works.  

So what pressure is it that I'm feeling you ask?  The pressure of getting all this done before classes start "for real" for me on Monday.  I only have one "normal" class on the CCC campus this semester because the other 3 classes are all at Shelby High School.  I'll be there first and fourth period every day and I am very nervous about how it is going to go with all the driving back and forth between campuses.  This beginning-of-school-I-can't-possibly-do-all-that-I'm-supposed-to-do feeling is nothing new.  I do this every year.  This time though, it is intensified by the fact that I'm going to be having surgery on my foot on Thursday.  It's minor surgery and nothing to worry about, but I am missing two days of school the first week and that makes me really nervous.  I'm also not sure how long I'll be out of commission pottery-wise, so I really want to get things wrapped up before Thursday.  So there's THAT pressure too.

Trying Out Video

I'm experimenting with video and some of the settings on my phone.  I hope I'll get better at this the more I do it.  Here is one of my first efforts.  Jeff said that I need to warn everyone that it gets really fast in the middle.  So consider yourselves warned...

If for some reason, the embedded video doesn't show up, you can access it via this link:  VIDEO

This has been a crazy week.  The American Legion World Series is in town and I volunteer with that.  I went back to work on Wed, so we are in the middle of the craziness that is preparing for fall semester.  On top of that, the PGA Championship golf tournament is in Charlotte this week.  Jeff and I went and watched the third round yesterday.  It was fun, and I'm glad that we went, but it was so darn HOT.  Shouldn't be surprising since it is August and North Carolina.

I did manage to make a few things earlier in the week.  Here are some pictures.

A big platter.

Eight mugs - haven't done any with texture on them in a while.

I made eight of these egg separators too.  Forgot to get a picture of all of them together.

 And a lidded casserole.

The rain this week made finishing this more difficult than I anticipated.  It was still sticky and too wet on Tuesday when I had time set aside to work on it.

I unloaded the kiln on Thursday morning.

View of the top shelves.  Looks a little different from before, doesn't it.  

(The before shot)

Dad needed a new lidded bowl for salt.  I made 4 and let him choose the one that he liked the best. All 4 of them turned out nice, but I think this one may be my favorite.

This is the one Dad chose for his kitchen.

I like glazes that move when they are fired.  It takes 2 firings to get this effect.  After the first firing, the glaze on the top is a complete disaster.  I cover that with a different glaze (believe it or not, I'm using floating blue) and fire it again and all the problems with the first glaze are solved.

I also worked on some new things this week.  So far, this is what I've gotten finished.  

Ten soup bowls. 

I made 6 more of these last Saturday, so I'll have 4 sets of 4 when they are all done.

Two more bacon cookers...and I remembered to cut the drain holes in the bottom.

Doesn't seem like all that much, does it?  Keep in mind that there was also glazing and kiln loading/unloading that happened. 

I'll be in the studio a LONG time today, so I plan to get a bunch of stuff made.  I need mugs and another platter done ASAP, so those things will be the priority.  There's also 3 buckets of glaze to deal with.  I've been waiting for the glaze fairy to come do that for me, but it seems that she isn't going to help out after all.  

Remember That Momentum I Mentioned?

I unloaded the bisque fire on Monday morning and worked on getting things ready to glaze.  Tuesday I glazed and loaded up the kiln.  I have a kiln full of nothing but my work.  That's never happened before.  

I'll wait to fire on Thursday night I think.  I'm not planning on being in the studio on Friday, so it will have time to cool off before I need to be in there.  I hope to have some pictures to share with you after I unload on Saturday morning.  Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well.  There's quite an investment in time and energy in that kiln right now.

There was one piece that didn't fit this time around. The glazed shelf looks really sad all empty, doesn't it?  

After I loaded up the kiln, I sanded all the things that I made last week that were dry enough for bisque firing. I bet there's half a load right now of green ware ready to go already.  It's all pretty big pieces.  I plan to do some smaller things like soup bowls and mugs the rest of this week.

I've got to use these last few days wisely.  I go back to work next week and the American Legion World Series gets started too.  I may not have time to get back in the studio for a while.