My spray booth arrived last week and friend helped me get it inside. We had to take out the sliding glass doors, but otherwise it came in OK. Christy and I then removed the window and built a stack to exhaust it. Then I wired it up to a switch and pulled a dedicated circuit for the spray booth and another for the compressor. I even put a small light it in. It is so much nicer to do this indoors. It has a 12 inch tubeaxial fan and provides a good deal of suction. I still wear a mask though when I spray. I throw in the picture of the snowy bird house last week just for symmetry.

This week I bought a weed burner so I could firm up clay quickly. That allows me to throw different sections and join them together. Last night I did this jar and today Christy carved it. I'll have to fire the lid separately. Unfortunately it won't fit in my little kiln together

Last night, I decided to make a big vase. As big as will fit in my tiny kiln at least. The interior of my kiln is 23 inches high. I vent it through the bottom which means I have to put tiny posts and a shelf in the bottom so I don't block the vent hole. This leaves me less than 22 inches. At leather hard this vase is about 22 inches tall. It's going to be a tight fit!

I hope to buy a larger kiln this year, but even then it likely won't be more than 27 inches tall. I'd like to work on making some really large work, but I'll have to find a place to fire them (not to mention actually SELL them). Tomorrow Christy will work here magic with the stylus.

I recently ordered a batch of clay from Highwater mixed to a custom recipe. I worked with Ron Roy (coauthor of Mastering Cone 6 Glazes) and he saved me a great deal of time by taking the properties I wanted in a clay and getting me a great start. From there I tweaked the vitrification and kept running tests until I got the absorption right where I want it for my firing temperature. Today, the 18 wheeler dropped the pallet off at work and moved it to the studio. It was the first time I have used any of this clay that had been pugged. My tests were just mixed in a bucket and dried on plaster. I'm shooting for a particular reddish color in a clay that will stand up much better than the stock clay I had been using. Highwater has other clays that throw really well too, but not in the color I want. I threw a few large bowls and laid the rims way down to see if they rip apart before they dry!

It's been so long since I used my camcorder that I had forgotten how to get the video back to the computer. So, I took the opportunity to shoot a quick clip of a batter bowl to get the process back down.

I've been losing way too many bowls this week. A few days ago I was throwing dessert cups and lost a third within minutes of throwing them. And then tonight when I was throwing what Christy and I refer to as our ‘low, wide bowls' ( ‘cause we're clever like that), I noticed later that another bit the dust. See, I put a rim on all my bowls and I'm just too aggressive with the thinness and often don't leave enough clay to support it. I'm not sure what's so hard about leaving more clay there. Stupidity and hard-headedness are painful and very often expensive character flaws.

On a more cheerful note, I finally got around to making a yarn bowl. The local yarn shop has been asking about one and when another friend mentioned she wanted one I finally got on with it and made a couple to test. I left these thicker so they'd be heavier and hence stay in one place as you pull the yarn through. I have no idea how that theory will work. The aforementioned friend also knitted a little cover for a yunomi (mom, think mug without a handle. Or a little juice cup.) I had given her, and even as a guy I had to admit it was pretty sweet. She had a neat name for it too, but I can't remember it now. Huddle mug cover maybe? Something like that. Anyway, if it was huddle mug it is because of the way many women (at least my wife and her) two hand a yunomi as if to channel every last bit of heat from the vessel to their frigid hands (get it, they huddle around it). Of course, at the very beginning the yunomi may be pretty hot, so if you have an appropriately sized knitted cover, you just slip it on until while everything cools enough to go skin on ceramic. See that way, you don't just waste precious BTUs by doing the "'thumb on the rim, finger on the bottom” hold while you wait on it to cool.

Today was the pumpkin festival and the almost world famous pumpkin roll. People line the street on “Frog Town” hill and cheer on the pumpkins. Most of them go bounding through the crowd, and I'm surprised there aren't more injuries. Clean, small town fun. We sold some pots, but the shop wasn't as busy as it has been in the past.

From Newfound Gap in the GSMNP:

This afternoon we took a drive into the national park to hang out for a while. On our way out we ran into an "elk jam". Not long ago you only saw the reintroduced elk in Cataloochee, but now they are showing up on the Cherokee side.