No Flow

Today was a no flow day. Some of you know I had some septic system problems a few weeks ago and I am dealing with scheduling an upcoming township inspection. This posting has nothing to do with that, it's all fine.

This had to do with me simply trying to work in the studio today. I pounded out some reclaim, cleaned my workspace, had clay ready and yet I just didn't feel it. I needed a nap, and had one..I needed dinner and had it..somewhere in the few minutes I actually worked on throwing I produce parts for 10 goblets, 3 sugar jars, a butter keeper, 2 pitchers and a small cup. Not a horrible day, but there are days when a small workload like this is no problem. Today it seemed like the worst, most horrible thing I had to do, but it's done and tomorrow is a fresh day.

PPD, Tallships and Craft

This was another weekend filled to overflowing, however this time it wasn't all work.

Friday Ro and I were scrambling to pack for the event this weekend, Pagan Pride Day in Erie PA. I was finishing up goblets in the studio, she was packing the pottery and the truck and we scrambled to get out of town by 6. Success!

The kids took care of Pepper and the herd of cats for us so besides worrying that they wouldn't we were worry free.

When we arrived in Erie our beloved hostess had wine, cheese, pita and hummus waiting for us. Delightful. And we passed out happy and tipsy and awoke early the next morning to set up the pottery. The sales day was better than we expected and we got to see a lot of our Erie friends. ALL of the Oak leaf and Acorn mugs sold, which was amazing for such a small event.

Ro was a social butterfly..rarely staying in one place too long and we both took a little time out of the afternoon to get 1/2 hour massages. After packing down we went to El Canelo for dinner and headed back to our hosts for more wine and chatting. The next day we all went down to the Bay to tour the tallships.

The tall ships were magnificent. Beauty, grace, craftsmanship and above all functional. Extremely functional. There isn't a lot of space on a ship and every inch counts. My initial reaction was all about rope. It takes a lot of damn rope to operate a tallship.

The Niagara's home port is in Erie and it is a gorgeous ship. Apparently the tallest, largest or one of the tallest historically correct ships sailing under the US flag. We toured her first, the went on to the Bounty, built for the movie Mutiny on the Bounty, then used for Pirates of the Caribbean and Yellowbeard. It was considerably more spacious than the original Bounty because it was built for a movie, but it was gorgeous too.

Rowan is currently obsessed with the idea of becoming crew for a couple tours. It costs 1350 for the training and food for a two week tour and if you stay for another two weeks you only pay for food. Looks like a great experience. I bet Morgan would love it, except for the lack of privacy and the lack of showers..7-10 days between ports. Your only options are soap and swim or a bucket bath on deck.

Sunday evening was a Craft Swap meeting we had committed to months ago and the host had actually moved to this weekend because we were going to be in town. It was fun even though I felt a little rushed to get out of town so we could drive the 4 hours home.

Overall a pleasant and relaxing weekend, now it's time to get back to it and make more!

There is no waste! Reclaim!

One of my favorite parts of teaching people about clay is when we get to talk about waste. Clay is so magical, there is no waste. Potters reclaim and reuse their scrap clay, which is good, because otherwise we'd all be throwing out hundreds of pounds of clay a year. Often potters put it off and end up with a huge unmanageable amount of clay to deal with all at one time. I prefer to keep up with it as I go. I have a lot right now because of all the plates I made..there are a lot of trimmings with plates. Normally I have one mound or two every few weeks.

Here are a couple of ways to reclaim your scrap clay.

1) Wet trimming and collapsed pots.

Wet trimming is where you trim off a little of the extra clay at the base of a piece before you cut it off of the wheel. I often have a huge pile of these trimmings at the end of a throwing session. When I was a beginner, I used to drop these into my throwing bucket to keep them out of the way, but now I keep them at the end of my ware board and rewedge them at the end of the throwing session. It's usually enough to do a bunch of handles. If I happen to have lose any pieces while throwing I add them to the pile and wedge them up.

2) Reclaiming whole pots.

Sometime you lose a piece while trimming. Leather hard pieces don't reclaim as easily as bone dry ones. They always seem to remain stiffer and can throw off the consistency of your clay, which is OK if you have a pug mill, but I don't.

I set them aside to dry out completely, then drop the pot into an empty clay bag and crush it up and add dry trimmings,which leads me to the next way to reclaim...

3) Reclaiming your trimmings.

Bone dry trimmings are the easiest to reclaim. I simply sweep and gather them up, put them into a used clay bag, then pour in the slop from my throwing bucket. If there is not enough moisture to completely cover them I add more from a fresh source to soak the pieces and then pour the excess back into a bucket. I leave the bag sit for a couple of days, then squeeze it all out into a smooth mound onto plaster bats to dry, it usually takes 3-4 days for it to be ready to wedge.

I always run through the mound with a wire a few times before I start to wedge..I occasionally lose a tool in my throwing bucket and it often hurts to find it while wedging. It will also alert you to any moisture inconsistencies.

If you have a batch with harder and softer pieces after reclaiming cut off thin slabs and restack them in alternating directions to manually pug them, slam it down a few times and then do it again, after 2 or three times the inconsistency will be gone and your clay will be ready to wedge and throw.