Great day today. We got orders for stacks of DVDs! Clay King in South Carolina is buying them for their store and Tucker Clay in Ontario is as well. New Mexico Clay is going to stock them in the Fall and of course Plainsman is looking to carry them as well. All at once Volume 1 is on its way….so, we met with Chris Craig today and decided to actively plan the shooting of Volume 2, sooner rather than later.
Pottery wise today we worked on sanding and packing a big pottery order for shipment. 32 dinner plates and 48 mugs plus some handled bowls. Will ship them tomorrow. Bisque loads are cooling tonight so we will unload and wax them tomorrow, Cindy is going to finish constructing teapots. We’ll glaze Sunday and load glaze kilns.
More of a business day today than potting day but we feel good about the way things are going.
In at eight and unloaded the 10 cu ft. Cindy puts handles on the mugs she threw yesterday while I sand the tea set (basket teapot and 5 tea cups) for the internet order. I took a few pictures for the webpage since we have changed the style a bit from what is on line. Packed up the order , drove by the house to print a shipping label and took the parcel to the post office. Guy Els (our pottery equipment builder) brought by the two extruder dies we ordered and we tried them out. They work well. After he leaves I unload the 16 cubic foot kiln. Another good kiln load. The lid for the old bean pot fits fairly well.
Called the owner and he will drop by Friday to pick up his bean pot. We have our fingers crossed that this is what he wants!
At some point while unloading the kilns we decided we would order another 16 cubic foot so got on the phone with Larry at Plainsman Pottery Supply and asked him to get us a price and delivery. When he phoned back a few hours later the price was lower than we had paid for the first 16 cubic foot so we told him to order us a new one. It should take 4 to 6 weeks to get in. We’ll sell the little 7 cubic footer and use that money to buy furniture for the new one. Will put it in the same place the 7 is sitting in now, just rearrange some tables. Excitement!
After finishing unloading the kilns Cindy signed pots while I finished the mug handles.Then we loaded a bisque in bothe the 16 cu ft and 10 cu ft kilns and programmed then to run consecutively. Finished up the day at 5:45 and headed home.
The end of the current run is in sight! Cindy has 40 mugs and two teapots to throw tomorrow and the throwing on orders will be complete. We’ll glaze these two bisque loads and fire them Friday afternoon and deliver pots to the Craft Coucil early next week. Hopefully they can get them on the shelf in time for the July tourist run.
We finally got a warm day, hit 30 this afternoon at the studio, so we had to adjust a bit as suddenly everything is drying quicker. Also hot and dry in studio as the 10 cu ft had just finished firing when we got there at 8 am and the 16 started ramping up shortly after. I had the fans running and all seemed good, but the wind outside started recirculating some of the exhaust fan fumes back into the studio. I pugged mug pugs and Cindy was throwing mugs. We finally left for awhile and came home, checked email etc, made a Costco run, and let the wax finish burning off at the studio! Then back to work. Cindy threw 70 mugs and a couple of tea pot bodies and I worked on getting some slab platters formed and drying.
I did take a photo of the latest version of the new beanpot design on the drying rack. We think it is going to be a real favourite at the August wholesale show here in Edmonton.Cindy warns she "isn’t happy yet" with the way they look but I think we are getting close. You can clearly see how we have used the old Quebec pot for inspiration. Also you can see the lid as it should fit the old pot once the lid is out of the kiln. (fingers crossed!)
Finished up a little before 6 and nice surprise when we got home, kids had supper ready! Makes a great end to the work day that way.
It’s supposed to cool off tonight and get rainy again for a couple of days. Oh well, maybe that way the weekend will be nice. Tomorrow I’ll be unloading the two kilns while Cindy finishes up her teapots and "handles" the mugs she threw today. Then we have a bisque load to go back into the 16. Could almost use another big kiln at times like this. I’ve got an internet order to ship out and a load of dinner plates and mugs to ship to a client up North. Looks like a very busy day. I’ll take pics of any thing interesting and add them here.
Nite..jim
So we survived the weekend, flooding will never reach us way up here! and Monday started with the usual get the kids to school run then into the studio. Glazed pots in Northern Lights for the 10 cu ft kiln and loaded it. had lunch then glazed pots in Raven Wing and Mountain Mist and loaded the 16 cu ft. Started the 10 running throught the program. Put a 10 hour delay on the 16 at 120 F , Cindy trimmed some pots she had thrown Friday! Has been so humid they were still touch and go. I put handles on a half dozen pieces and we called it a day. Will have another bisque load for the 16 as soon as we get it unloaded on Wednesday. Hopefully the mugs and jugs I handled today will be dry by then. Supposed to be close to 30 C tomorrow and with both kilns firing tonight one after the other should accelerate drying. Got an email from a gentleman tonight who had seen our video and gave it a glowing review. Said he had done filming and production of instructional videos for many years and he considered ours one of the best. Also the Edmonton Public School Board book store is going to take a few videos on consignment. Once it gets seen its gonna go! Gotta go so we can do the rest of the series! Tomorrow will be a little less hectic. Just have 40 mugs and a couple tea pots to get done for an order from one of the resort areas. I’ll unload the bisque from the 7 cu ft kiln and wax it , do a little clean up, (always suffers during a big production run) and maybe get a few slabs done. Running low on bisque slabs for orders. I got some pictures of the new bean pots today then left camera at the studio. I’ll post them tomorrow. We also glazed and are firing the lid for the heirloom beanpot for the gentleman to pick up Wednesday. Sure hope it fits! Pictures of that will follow as well. Chris our DVD producer and my music partner ( watch for the mp3!) finally returned from the maritimes! We thought he might be lost at sea. He enjoyed the news of the good reviews as well. See, he has this cool new Sony camera he wants to use on the next DVD, and he wants this one to sell so we can do it. Subliminal message here….Buy the DVD!…oops that was out loud wasn’t it. Oh well. Until tomorrow, potfully yours, jim
As the weekend nears an end I thought I should catch up. Had a great Father’s day today. First my son phoned from Kansas where he and his wife are visiting her parents. He heads back to Hawaii next week. He’s in the US Navy stationed in Honolulu. Tough assignment! Then Kaileigh and John gave me a card and gifts. After coffee Cindy and I headed in to the studio to unload the bisque loads and wax pot bottoms for glazing. CIndy also loaded the 7 with another bisque while I made some electrical repairs and talked on the phone to my two daughters, one after the other. Everyone is doing great. Was good to talk to them all.
Tomorrow morning we are glazing and loading the 16 and the 10. Have an order for 32 dinner plates and 48 mugs to go up North. Two internet orders, one for four dinner sets and another for a tea set , a couple of other orders here in the city.
We usually take Saturdays off and yesterday was a good day to stay at home as it rained steadily all day. At least we avoided the flash floods and hail they had in the southern part of the province. Did a little email stuff, Cindy read through the Dragon story as it stands right now and suggested some changes and additions, and we watched "The Aviator". Good family day.
Friday I worked with the landlord here at the house on some repairs and Cindy finished trimming the pots she threw Thursday. More photos tomorrow. The new bean pot design looks as if it is going to be a winner. Our inspiration came from an old family heirloom a gentleman brought in to the studio a few weeks ago.
It is a bean pot he brought with him from Quebec which has been in his family for many years. He had loaned it out and somehow the lid got broken and the pieces lost. Our job was to figure out what the original lid looked like and then make one which when finished actually fits in the pot. He was able to tell us it was "low" and when viewed from the side was barely visible. First we tried lids which resembled what we have been using up until now on our casserols and beanpots but they just don’t suit. Then Cindy made three prototypes which looked right but were all just a little too big to fit. Seems the horizontal shrinkage on the new style lid is different than the old style so back to the wheel. Three more lids were thrown and we think we have a winner. It will go in the glaze load tomorrow and hopefully fit as the pot is needed for a family reunion on Thursday!
Anyway our new beanpots are going to be our interpretation of the old Quebec Pot. Pictures in a few days.
Today Cindy hauled the kids to school and then hit the studio for nine hours of trimming, handle pulling, and lid fitting. She also got a standing order for forty mugs and two tea pots a month for one of the resort shops for the next couple of months anyway. Mike mugs in Mountain Mist and Mountain Mist with Wild Rose. Same with the tea pots. We were hoping for July to be a light month when we could play a bit and have some invention time but looks as if we may have to re schedule. I worked in the office again today on the Dragon story and on the web page. Added testimonials to the ad page for the DVD and set up international shipping on the order page. That turned into a real hair puller, as if I had any to spare! Took almost four hours to get done and published.
Back at the studio the bisque pots have finally cooled so they can be unloaded and the pot bottoms waxed. Getting ready for another glazing session. When we work together at it we can glaze a pile of pots in a short time. We have a couple of internet orders waiting for a few of these pots then the rest go to retail clients in Ontario and British Columbia.Should be shipping by mid week next week.
Kids start their final exams at school Monday. Hard to believe its that time of year again already. Man time flies! Short today. Been on this machine too long…jim
…..so I did sneak out for lunch with Cindy at the studio(yesterday lunch now as I’m writing this Thursday Morning) , she was mud from foot to waist as throwing some bigger pots on batts and doesn’t use the splash pan. Going good , although with the wet weather we are falling behind schedule with drying. Also the bisque loads are cooling slower than usual as we have a lot of plates in the kilns, which means more shelves, heavier load equals slower cooling time. I came back to the office for a few hours and wrote some more on Dragon story. It is going good if I do say so myself. Went back to studio around 4:30 to get Cindy and took some photos of some of her last two day’s throwing.
Table with a beanpot, several platters and bowls.
Casseroles , some batterbowls,etc.
Two more bean pots and a "playtime" vase
Two sinks. Thrown a little over 20 inches so they will end up around 18 when finished.
We finished up the day with a school meeting. Kaileigh is going back to Italy next Spring break and this time they are also going to Greece. Sounds like fun! After we got home from that I wrote a little more, we looked at the ClayArt forum entries for the day and called it a night. So ends another day at the studio.And now it’s Thursday morning…but that’s another entry!….jim
Hard to believe but the week is half over. Woke up to another rainy dreary day but the kids did catch the bus this morning! Into studio on time at 8. Kilns are doing exactly what they are supposed to do, no surprise really, the 16 had just finished and the 10 was starting to ramp up so our electric meter peak indicator didn’t go up any more! Nice and warm in the studio. That gets important as the day goes by , especially for Cindy when she is throwing a couple of hundred pounds of pots and gets wetter and muddier as time passes. We had a look at our schedule and I wound up back in the office working on web related stuff, and getting back into the Rocky Mountain Dragon Story again, all about Timidthy and his friends.Working title, "Dragons?What Dragons?" I think we’re about half way through the book and the exciting part is just beginning! I’ll slip back down to the studio later for lunch with Cindy.I Left her chained to the wheel.(joking!)
Took a picture of our pot mobile, in front of the studio. General Motors best kept secret. All wheel drive, passenger doors both sides, hauls a ton of clay or pots (literally),( can load our entire 10 by 10 show booth and product in the back),and is great on long trips, all for a reasonable cost. Since we got our Savana a year ago we’ve put almost 37000 km on it ,(have gone all the way to Mexico and back), and wouldn’t trade it for any other vehicle. The guys in Missouri sure put this one together right for us!
You can see by the puddles we’ve been having precipitation and it sure slows the drying down. Cindy expects to have all the pots thrown today for the Craft Coucil initial order. We want to have our products on display there in time for the July 1st long weekend. Official start of tourist season.
I’ll break today into segments. Have to get back to story telling……Jim
Hey we got our first comment today. Cindy’s Mom , but it’s a start. Everybody slept in today so the kids got a ride to school and we got to the studio a little late. I mixed and pugged about 150 pounds of clay to get Cindy started on the throwing she had planned for the day then took a run to Laurie Greenwood’s Volume II Books to deliver some of the pottery she had on order. She just started selling our pots last month and they have met with great success in her store. This afternoon we loaded the 16 and 10 with green pots to bisque fire and set them to run one after the other. Will be warm in the studio tomorrow morning! We want to glaze both loads Thursday and fire them to be ready to ship Sunday and Monday. Pugged another 80 pounds and Cindy threw a few more pots, trimmed some big sink bowls (will be 18 inches finished so over 20 right now) , we tucked all the wet pots in for the night and skipped out early. Lawn at home demanding mowing before the next rain! And the rains came. Thunderstorm around 8 oclock. Supposed to be cold and damp tomorrow so another day with the fans going to move some air around and hasten drying a bit.
We are still trying to figure out how to market our DVD. Everyone who has purchased a copy has had good thing s to say and most are ready for volume 2. The only problem is there are only a few people who have purchased the video. Until we sell a few hundred we won’t be able to shoot number 2.
Well here we go, another week, more pots in the works. We shipped two orders out first thing this morning. Another 150 pounds of pottery outbound on Greyhound! Anyone looking to ship something like pottery sure can’t go wrong with Greyhound. We’ve been shipping all our large shipments this way for years now and have nothing to complain about. Shipments go where they are supposed to go, they arrive on time, and they arrive in excellent shape. In three years I think we’ve had about three broken pots and I blame my packing more so than mishandling. Another plus is you can ship up to five boxes on one waybill. Handy! Cindy was throwing off and on all dayin between phone calls and other interruptions. Fifty or so mugs then 8 large platters for chip and dips. I waxed the bisque pots we took out of the kiln Friday. More mugs! We’ve been saying it looks like a mug selling Summer and so far we’re right. Another order phoned in this afternoon for mugs. The Mike mug is really popular and our new Centennial glaze looks like a winner too. Biggest problem with mugs is there is no money in them. Everyone is so used to paying around $18 to $20 for them that the price is pretty well stuck there. Has been that way for years. Everything else has gone up but mugs are stuck. Since wholesale gives us half that we have to make a lot of mugs in a short time to make any profit at the end of the day. We once said we weren’t going to do mugs. In the last six weeks we’ve made over 500! Oh well….Tomorrow is another day. Cindy hopes to finish throwing most of the orders on the books tomorrow. We are getting our first order ready for the Alberta Craft Council Gallery Shop…excited about that!
Our blog is brand new June 13th, 2005 so if you don’t see much information here yet that’s why.Feel free to comment on the web site , our pots, the weather in your part of the world, whatever! Our plan right now is to give a little synopsis at the end of the day of how the studio work went and any other things we might want to add. We’ll see how it works out. Glad you could join us!
Jim
Welcome to the PotBlog. Hope you enjoy our site. We’ll be leaving vital tidbits of information here as time permits. Your comments are more than welcome.
Jim and Cindy