Ok, well, now that my anger at the clay has subsided, and it seems to be doing things that I want it to, I thought I'd post again about that part of my life which is overwhelming, the Ceramics Studio.
After a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Tim and Pat's, the food was excellent as was the company, and a nice relaxing evening, Friday morning came around, and I knew that I was going to need to head back to the studio to get back to work.
So after clearing the driveway with Dan and Mike, and engaging in a little snow combat, Mike was kind enough to drive me back to Calvin where I could recommence the studio stuff.
I spent Friday afternoon finishing glazing my work and prepping kiln equipment for the stacking that was to begin on Saturday. O ground down some shelves, applied kiln wash to the shelves (that keeps work from fusing to the shelves if a glaze runs) and sorting the work by height.
After that, I went home, ate some dinner and went to bed... Exciting night, no?
On Saturday, I was back in the Studio, and was working on my own pieces, and when Prof. Greidanus came in we stacked the kiln together, as it is a huge job for one person. The two of us got everything stacked and placed correctly by 4:00 pm and at that point I was really tired... kiln shelves are extremely heavy by the way, and awkward to place. Not easy work, rather strenuous actually...
An then today, after going to church this morning, I met with Professor Greidanus at the Studio at 1:00 pm and we ignited the burners, and while a little nerve wracking, as it is a lot of gas in those pipes and a little daunting when you think about all the work in the kiln, everything went smoothly and the kiln is now firing nicely.
Now comes the fun part, tonight, late or rather early tomorrow morning I get to go in and turn up the gas, start the reduction and monitor the firing... this is all extremely exciting, and kinda cool to have this responsibility... needless to say I'm stoked!
So, for now, I'm finishing papers, working on HW for tomorrow, and getting ready for tonight. I may take a nap later, to have some energy for the early hours.
Wish me luck!
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2 comments:
Wow - I'm impressed and I'm not even exactly sure what all you're talking about! So how long do you have to stay there? Do you take along your mat and pillow? It must be exciting when you finally get to open the doors and see all the results. Way to go, Bob!!
Haha - stoked! Very punny (even if you didn't mean it).
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