Still sick.

I'm still sick and now I'm feeling totally grumpy. I can't even sit at my computer in the office/guestroom. I'm sitting on the couch with the laptop and a box of tissues watching Dune (which I love, but sometimes makes me want to puke when I watch it). Jon and I watched the entire series of Twin Peaks several weeks ago and just realized that might have been the root of my owl obsession lately. And it rekindled my crush on Kyle MacLachlan...well, my crush on Kyle MacLachlan as Agent Cooper.

I'm one sale away from 1,000. That's the only thing that isn't making me grumpy today.

I'm off to Bailey's in an hour to pick up some mason stains. I just found out that they discontinued one of the stains I use to make my pale blue, so I'm going to start testing new blues. It's good, I need some change.

I really need to not be sick anymore. I have so much work to do. I can't believe Craftacular is in less than 2 weeks. I'm kind of starting to panic...

Front page.

Yay! I clicked on Etsy just now to print up an invoice and what did I see?

This beautiful treasury is from Anne at webbpottery. The title was "Hot Jugs"...I love that. It's a nice mix of styles and finishes and included some of my favorites- work by Jenni Brant and Annie Chrietzberg.

Anyway, I went to Bailey's early yesterday and straightened out the cone mistake. I fired her up and now she's back down to 300º. I'll be unloading the kiln later this afternoon and posting some new work in my shop.

1500°??

WOW. So I guess it's been a while since I've posted. I've been majorly busy in the studio. I'm actually in a bit of a sour mood at the moment. I was firing a ▲10 glaze kiln this afternoon and I was shocked to hear from Jon that the kiln was off after only 4 hours! I immediately thought "what now?!" but then I remembered that I just opened a new box of cones. Aha! ▲010. Someone gave me the wrong box. I checked my invoice to make sure, and it definitely says ▲10. So that was a total waste of energy. Tomorrow it's back to Bailey's to get my proper cones and then I get to start all over again. I'm a bit disappointed as I had a lot of new vases I was pretty excited about seeing. Now I'm going to have to wait 2 extra days.

I did have work included in two treasuries that made Etsy's front page on Sunday and Monday.

Both yellow pieces. Hmm.

Oh, and I also spent Saturday night putting up some decals that I ordered from Elephannie....I know, a very exciting Saturday night, but Jon's band was playing and I felt like staying in. I had been wanting to do something with the space over my tub for a while now. Our bathroom is HUGE. More than twice the size of my undergrad studio space. In a normal house it would probably be a small bedroom. This photo shows about 1/6 of it.

Anyway, doesn't it look fab?! Our house was built in 1970 and then left unfinished for a few years. The previous owners bought it from the people who built it and finished it themselves. The couple were both artists and that made for some creative touches to the house. I'm particularly fond of the black tub, sink and toilet (right of the tub). Everyone who comes over comments on them. The black and white tiles are also very 70's. We had to re-do the shower stall (left of the tub) and opted to keep the tiles the same...although the original was all white and we added more black. Anyway, I'm totally addicted to these decals now. They were so easy to use and when I'm tired of them I can just peel them off and get something new.

In progress.

So I never got around to posting photos last night. I stayed in the studio quite late and then collapsed on the couch to do some crossword puzzles and watch an old James Bond movie. So this is what I woke up to this morning...

The vases in the 1st pic are from the other day. Drying in the kiln room. The other vases are the 15 from yesterday with half their black slip, waiting to be lightly trimmed and painted some more. Hopefully they will be ready to carve later tonight.

I'm off to bathe, eat and run to Bailey's for some new mason stains. I'm going to start testing a few new colors and I'm also planning on revamping my red for the spring. I know I've already changed it a few times, but red is so difficult. I get customers asking for a pink red, a primary red, a rusty red... I just want a clean, close to primary, glossy red. My current red is a creamy tomato red, which I love, but it is a little unreliable. I'm also testing a possible new green. I LOVE my current green, but I'd like a more glossy surface. So, if I can keep the color and improve the surface texture, I'll be a very happy lady.

Hit a snag.

So the work never got fired.

I've been meaning to change the heating elements in the kiln for a month or so. It's been taking longer and longer to reach temperature and the floor element is definitely split. So.....My first firing back from the holidays, and it stalls out at about 270 degrees! Which really doesn't make any sense to me. I'm hoping it's just the elements and not a controller problem. I took the 2 mile trip over to Bailey's and unfortunately they only had 3 of the 6 elements I need. I'm going to change the floor tomorrow and try again. If it doesn't work, I'll start changing the rest. If that doesn't work, I'll wait until the back ordered elements are in. If that doesn't work...well...I won't be too happy.

Grrrr...