So Darn Busy!

I really have to share that this is the most inconvenient time to have gotten a job, although getting an actual regular paycheck is not inconvenient at all!

A couple of new cups with underglaze only.

Of course, you know that I'm prepping for a couple of shows right now, one with "normal ceramics and sculpture and one Hallowe'en-focused. So I'm up at 4:30 A.M. (yuck-o!) so I can guzzle some coffee and check my email, get into the studio around 5:00-ish, and start getting ready for work around 6:30. I come back home, have lunch around 2:00-ish, and either go back into the studio or sit down at The World's Most Expensive Glazing Table (as Mr. ShellHawk is fond of calling our dining table) and work there. It gives me a break from throwing and gets me out of the hottest part of the day.

In my defense, I work there so I can be in the same room with Mr. ShellHawk, who, for his part, is working on a very important and nearly incomprehensible, and most of all expensive project which will undoubtedly cause him to miss some personal commitments on his laptop. I mean, miss some personal commitments in the future. Not personal commitments on his laptop, which in this day and age, could mean some pretty weird things... He works on his laptop in the living room in front of the TV and next to the dining table... Oh, never mind!

You get the point...

 I've been working on some commissions, like the plate above. Below, I threw the cups, fired them, and started underglazing them once they dried enough. I did the bisque firing, put some clear glaze on them, and fired them again.

They'll be coming out of the glaze firing tonight or tomorrow, depending on how cool the kiln is. If I open it too soon, the glaze could start crazing..

 So here's the second layer of my small kiln as I was unpacking it yesterday morning. I am totally jonesing for a larger kiln like you wouldn't believe! This little one is just not handling the volume I can make, any more, but I'm not quite able to buy a new digital kiln, and I haven't found one on Craigslist. 

As Tom Petty said, the waiting is the hardest part!

Then, this:

It was the first time a plate I threw cracked. I'm pretty sure it's because of the shape of what I had stacked on it. Damn!

But oh, well. I can make another one!

Well, out to the studio, kids. Then on to work. Then home. Then...