A wonderful week of rain, sunshine, and clay

It has been a very busy week. Tuesday was a great day in the studio and I hardly had time to take pictures (due to the fact that I have to wash my hands in order to take a picture.) But I managed to grab a few important moments. First of all Joyce and I went up to see the wood kiln cooling down. It had fired Last weekend and was still quite warm. Not so warm that I couldn't stick my camera inside to grab a few photos! Here is my favorite. It looks so peaceful in there, which is a major contrast from only a few days earlier. Kiln opens this Saturday morning and I have two pieces that I am anxious to see.

I have a special order I am working on for a small distillery in Seattle who makes Sochu, a fermented and distilled Japanese liquor. It tastes kind of like Sake but it is made with pearled Barley. These little cups have a stamped tag on the front with the companies logo and despite my best efforts occasionally delaminate. I slip and score them and compress the seem with a small plastic tool however due to a curved surface and tension from the tag drying it can curl off like the one pictured. Now I cannot press it back down because the tag is now leather hard. 

These are fixable! I started using paper clay to repair these cups and the results are great. 

Paper clay is simply clay, water, sodium silicate (a teaspoon), and a soft paper such as toilet paper, eco batting, or even newsprint. I mix up about a quart as the rotting paper can smell over a long period of time. I have even used this on broken bisque ware and re bisqued......I know your thinking this is impossible but it does actually work!

I got to finish my time in the studio with a small workshop. Teaching one hour workshops to folks with little to no experience is very rewarding. Watching them create and play and see there cup or bowl come to life is hard to put into words. They all have the same expression on their faces, concentration, mixed with joy and wonder. 

As I finish these projects it is often hard for folks to leave. Who could blame them, after all, I still find it hard to turn off the lights and go home.