I’m trying to keep a safe studio for my own health and wellbeing since working with certain ceramic materials can be toxic. Every so often I get a little paper cut or other small wound that doesn’t look terrible, but hurts like the dickens - especially with constant use when working with clay. When this happens, I can’t exactly wear a bandaid since it would come off due to the wet nature of working with clay. My hands are constantly in water or clay or both. My most recent wound happened 2 days ago. I was removing a stilt from the bottom of a ceramic piece and it slipped and cut my thumb. Not fun.
Finger cots to the rescue. Though I don’t like wearing them, they do the job. And yes, they look a little bit like a condom. Oh gee, I hope I don’t get a ton of spam from this post! They’re not terribly comfortable, much like I imagine the real thing would feel…. But, the cots do serve as a barrier between potential chemicals and what not finding free entry into my body via the cut.
Et Voila! What other safety precautions do I take? I use a respirator when mixing glazes, gloves when glazing, glasses and a mask when sanding greenware & bisque, and goggles when checking cones in the kiln. As an independent artist, I rely on my health to have a long career. It’s really important to take care of my body, especially if I were to find myself without health insurance some day. My husband currently has me covered, but he dreams of being self employed some day and our health coverage could change at anytime.
Meanwhile, I attended my monthly garden club meeting last night and visited 3 amazingly beautiful gardens. I’m getting the bug to really dig in the soil and plant. Sunday, I’m going to play in a different kind of mud and plant a small vegetable garden near the back door of our house. I’ll need to fence it off to keep the dogs out of it but the rewards of fresh salsa and herbs will be wonderful come July and August!
Till later,
~Cynthia
Crazy clay head - my mother’s day present from my daughter
Side View
It’s hard to believe, there are only 2.5 weeks left for my for daughter until school’s out for the summer! That means that I only have one more week of teaching my after school clay class - which is both good but also sad. Good because teaching takes time away from my own work and I’ll have more time in the studio. Sad, because I really enjoy watching the kids create and I’m going to miss them.
The kids always amaze me with what they come up with. Even when I give them the same assignment they all look different; it just goes to show we bring our own stuff to our art work. One of their favorite things to do is “free clay” - which is basically my way of keeping them busy until the end of class once they’ve finished the project. Some kids finish the project right away and others need the whole 2 hours to complete the assignment. It really depends on their attention to detail or fear of messing up. I always tell them, it’s hard to mess up when you make the rules.
The head above is the result of “free clay” made by my daughter. When I first saw it freshly made, I was in love with her creation. She didn’t want to fire it, and I pretty much insisted. Since then, there have been a rash of crazy clay heads in the making by the rest of the class. Fun, fun fun.
Ceramic rattles
Two weeks ago, we made clay rattles and they are so cool! I’m thinking of making some myself. It’s hard to resist the temptation to pick one up and shake it up. They all sound differently too, depending on how thick the walls or how many and large the clay balls inside the rattle are.
Meanwhile, I finally upgraded my Word Press blog to version 2.5 - and it seems to be running a little slower. It has a really cool administrative interface, but I wonder if it’s causing the slow down. And, wouldn’t you know it, I upgrade and there’s already another upgrade available to 2.5.1. I’m staying put for a little while.
Cheers from snowy Colorado (yes, despite 75 degree weather yesterday, we woke up to snow!)
~Cynthia
Several weeks ago, I visited the Clay Stamps website and tried to purchase a bevel-o-matic clay tool via their Paypal Buy Now Link. I didn’t receive a confirmation or shipping info after committing to purchase. A week later, an email appeared in my inbox from Paypal informing me that Clay Stamps has not claimed my payment and that I should contact them or cancel my purchase. After emailing and receiving no response, I reluctantly canceled my order. I always like to give someone the benefit of the doubt - they could have been on vacation or something. I was going to follow up with a phone call to the number listed on the website, but after telling my Father in Law the story and showing him a photo of a handmade bevel tool in a recent article in Pottery Making Illustated (go to the link on bottom right, titled “Beyond the Square”), he responded, “I can make you one!”
He made me 2! What a great Mother’s Day present and perfect timing. The Summer Art Market is looming in about 5 weeks, and I want to do some more hand-building since my little porcelain boxes sold out at the Guild Show last weekend.
Meanwhile, I’ve been shopping! I need to stop, but I keep finding great independent artists whose work I adore. Friday, I visited the Castle Clay artist’s show and purchased an Asian inspired salt fired mug by Don Cox. Yesterday, I went to a mead & sushi tasting event that featured work by local artists and purchased some steam-punk pins by “The Pork Shop Show” and a reproduction print mounted on a 1″ gallery wood support by Two Little Fruits.
Both the mead and the sushi were delicious! The mead was home brew - and I’ve decided I need to make some for us after I research recipes - finally I’d be able to use the Grolsch bottles with the little ceramic swing top stoppers that my husband has been collecting over the years and won’t let go of. The lemon variety tasted a bit like Limoncello, and I love lemons. The sushi chef likes to do home parties, and I asked him if he would be adverse to doing a kid’s party. I don’t know if you remember, but, my 10 year old daughter loves herself some sushi. She always wants to go out to the most expensive sushi restaurant in town for her birthday every year. It would be cool to learn how to make it ourselves!
Have a great weekend and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!
~Cynthia
Last Thursday, I spent most of the day at the church where the guild holds its sales photographing work to use in future show advertisements and on their website. Our sale runs Thursday - Saturday for obvious reasons and the church apparently gives the guild favorable rental terms. It doesn’t hurt that it’s huge and that there are numerous rooms at our disposal. Some might consider it sacrilege, but we did our photographing in a small intimate annex chapel with the set up above - notice the cross behind the photo tent. It worked so well, I think I’m going to abandon photographing outside with my ghetto setup. The room was completely dark except for the lighting on the tent. We were able to get some great shots this way.
Platter by guild member, Kathleen Laurie, photographed in our set up
Meanwhile, during the marathon photo session, a few swear words escaped our lips - and we all laughed nervously while asking for forgiveness.
I’m feeling the urge to do a little glaze testing. Last night, I dusted off my copies of Mastering Cone 6 Glazes by Hesselberth & Roy as well as my copy of The Ceramic Spectrum by Robin Hopper. I’m feeling pretty relaxed now that the sale is over and I really do need to expand my glaze palette.
My in-laws are flying up today for a few days. They didn’t want to miss my daughter’s performance at the Shakespeare Festival on Friday and then we’ll spend Mother’s day together as a family.
Tonight, my husband and I are going on a rare date. We”re going to see Justin Currie, former lead singer of Del Amitri at the Toad Tavern. I’m not normally a live music fan, but this will be in an intimite venue - so I won’t feel so claustrophobic since there shouldn’t be any large crowds to speak of.
Happy Wednesday,
~Cynthia
Before becoming a member of the Colorado Potter’s Guild this year, I attended the show as a shopper for the past few years. This year I was both a member and a shopper. 
It’s hard to resist the temptation to buy everything, so I limited myself to 1 purchase. I bought the little soda fired wine cups above, by Jackie Harper and used them as soon as I got home from the show Saturday night. I suppose they could be purposed for tea or other beverages, but I knew that I was going to drink red wine from these as soon as I spotted them. It didn’t hurt that I was present the same day that Jackie was firing these little gems in the vapor kiln.
I love the look of soda fired ceramics and it looks like the guild is going to do a group soda firing this summer, so I’ll be able to get a couple of pieces in the kiln without having to sign up to fire the kiln myself. It will be a good way to try it out.
I want to thank those of you who were able to make it to the Guild’s spring sale this past weekend. Castle Clay artists have their show next weekend and I’m going to attend with a friend of mine. This year, they’ve invited some glass & jewelry artists to display their work at the show as well as a soap maker, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they produce.
Happy Monday,
~Cynthia
