Archive for the “Clean Up” Category

• Jump to: Back to the pottery studio
• Jump to: Balance teaching and making own work
• Jump to: Jack Johnson concert at Red Rocks August 17, 2008

Back to the Pottery Studio

Yesterday was my daughter’s first day of school here in Denver and while it’s welcome, it is also a bit sad.  Gone are our lazy days of doing whatever we wanted and hanging out together, but in its place is a more structured schedule and I’m finding that I actually need a little bit in order to be more productive in the studio.

I haven’t spent much time there since late June/early July when I switched gears from making my own work to getting my lesson plans and samples together in order to teach my kids art camps this summer.

Yesterday, I ventured into the studio for the first time in awhile (despite my best efforts to get in there earlier last week) and the photo above is what greeted me - a big big mess.  I basically dumped everything in there after each art camp ended and didn’t do much else.  Piles are on top of piles so I started straightening up yesterday in an effort to be productive again.  I even loaded a bisque kiln with work left over from June.

One of my kilns was in use - as a shelf for a big box of Styrofoam peanuts and bubble wrap.  Doh….  I must have been looking for something in a hurry and never put them back in their proper storage area.

Hand built mugs with cracked handles

Here’s something else I found: the relief printed hand built mugs (above) with cracked handles.  I have a theory of why the handles cracked - because none of my other mugs made this way have had cracking problems.  I made these mugs and then put them under plastic to dry slowly.  Meanwhile, in July, my energy was directed towards teaching and I forgot about them for several weeks.  Here in Denver this summer, we had temps between 90° - 100° for almost 4 weeks straight  with very low humidity and no rainfall, so when I finally remembered to peek under the plastic to check the mugs I found a crack in every single one of the handles.  All I can say is, “Don’t do crack.”  It’ll kill you and it’s not very attractive.

I think my problem resulted from not loosening the plastic and/or removing it in a timely fashion and because of the way the handles are constructed they all cracked at the most stressful point on the handle - at the bend.  In the very recent past, I’ve loosened the plastic in a matter of days when making these mugs with no cracking issues whatsoever.  I’m going to fire them anyway and use them to test some different glaze combinations using the new cone 6 glaze recipes I started testing early this summer.  In fact, I still have 2 glaze tests that need to be fired.  Maybe I’ll do that right after I finish writing this post - oh wait, I think I need to make some more test tiles.  I’ll do that instead.  It’s a good to get back into the groove after being gone for awhile.

In the meantime, a wholesale order came in this morning through wholesalecrafts.com which will give me added incentive to get back in the swing of things again.

Balance teaching and making work

I don’t know about other people, but I’m not the kind of person who seamlessly switches between teaching and making my own work.  I love teaching and while it’s inspiring, it’s also creatively exhausting since I spend so much time helping other people execute their ideas.  Maybe it would be easier if my students were adults, maybe not.  Please weigh in here if you teach any art classes and can share your experience or methods you use to balance the two activities.

Now that school has started back up, a lot of parents are beginning to ask me when I’m going to start my after school clay classes this year.  I think I’m going to go from teaching 2 days a week down to 1 - but the problem will be that I’ll have a wait list.  Last year, I started up a second class since I hated to tell anyone “no”, but I think I have to protect my own work schedule too.

Jack Johnson at Red Rocks August 17, 2008

Finally, my husband and I went to the Jack Johnson concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater on Sunday night with some friends of ours.  If you’ve never been to Red Rocks or even heard about it, not only is it a fantastic venue to see live music, it’s a great place to hike and visit on a non event day.  Red Rocks is an old WPA project left over from the Depression era that continues to amaze all who visit.

Anyway, back in late spring when we bought our tickets to the concert, we weren’t thinking about the date at all.  As the event drew closer, we realized that it fell on a school night - but not just any school night - twas the night before the first day of school for Denver kids.  We had a blast, but all 4 of us were hurting pups the next day when the alarm rang.  I probably had it the easiest since all I had to do was get my  daughter to school on time, but my husband had to go to work, and our 2 friends - one is a high school English teacher his wife had a business trip to San Diego with a 5am pickup.  Ouch.  Originally, I meant to write this post yesterday, but just couldn’t summon the energy.  It gets harder and harder to party like a rock star once you’re over the age of 40.

Quite a sold out crowd at the Jack Johnson concert - people of all ages.  The 4 of us decided that his music is like getting  a massage.  It’s relaxing, sort of like listening to a young James Taylor.  By the way, I also like J.T. I recorded just a little bit of video (my photo storage card only has about 2 minutes worth) but I have to compress the file.  A few photos follow below:

Click on an image to enlarge

[Show as slideshow]

~Cynthia

Studio Clean Up

I went into the studio yesterday to work, only I couldn’t find anything I needed including tools, boards, rulers etc. This was a clear sign that my studio space needed to be thoroughly cleaned. I made good progress and hated to stop, but stop I had to in order to make it to my last kid’s clay class of the school year. I loved teaching it - but I am looking forward to more time to make my own work this summer without the extra demands of teaching. Plus, the last 2 kiln loads resulted in exploded pots despite my best efforts of pre-heating the kiln and firing slowly.

The kids always took news of exploded pots stoically, like a badge of honor. Funny thing is, there was one kid in class who always purposely tried to construct his work so that his would explode. When we made rattles, he made a rattle shaped and designed like a grenade. Ironically, it was always the other kid’s work that exploded - not his.

I’m not exactly done teaching for the summer. I’ll be teaching 3 week long kid’s workshops at the Art Student’s League of Denver and 1 kid’s workshop at Anderson Ranch Arts Center this summer - but all 4 will take place at their studios so I won’t be hauling things back and forth to mine.

Many of you know that I don’t have running water in my humble garagio. I need to show my handy father in law photos of the Cink! Not having running water is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it forces me to conserve and a curse because well, running water would make clean up so much easier.

As I started cleaning up my space yesterday, there was no water in my “sink”. My sink is basically a large rubber tub and when the clay sludge gets close to the top of the water line, it’s time to start fresh. I spied an empty bag of dog chow and had an aha moment. The bags are water proof and this one even came with a zipper at the top. I emptied the sludge into the bag and put it outside where I hope it will dry in the next week so that I can dispose of it.

If you’re a clay person who has no running water, what do you do with your sludge? I do recycle my clay - but this stuff is all residue from cleaning up, glazing, sanding and contains both low, mid and high fire ingredients.

Milestones

On Monday, my husband and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe that it’s been that long. I met him in high school in Stuttgart, Germany where both of our fathers were stationed at the time. We got married when I was 23 in 1989. In a sense, we have sort of grown up together which is a cool thing. There’s not a lot I don’t know about him.

On April 28th, I missed my blog’s 2 year anniversary. How did that happen? Last year, I celebrated in grand style and did a giveaway. There’s always next year! I’ve enjoyed blogging tremendously over the past 2 years. It’s become a part of my routine to both write posts and to read other people’s blogs. I love how the network of blogs allows for the possibility of new connections and interests by simply clicking on another’s links. What did I do before I discovered blogs? Well, I had more time for one - but I wouldn’t trade more time in exchange for giving up blogging. I enjoy it.

That’s all for this morning,

~Cynthia

P.S. I have exciting news about a possible new gallery - stay tuned…