We returned from our whirlwind road trip late Monday evening and after a quick studio visit spent yesterday getting several personal things done. One of the biggest items was getting the kids ready for back to school which starts here tomorrow. Today we’ll head into the studio and get started on outstanding orders. We continue to follow the story of the Hurricane aftermath and find ourselves somewhat bemused by the seeming lack of support coming from the Canadian general public in this area. After the tsunami there was a huge public show of support and organization of aid, benefits, and so on. So far here in Edmonton it hasn’t even rated a mention on the Newspaper editorial page. We don’t think it is a purposeful anti American sentiment, just oh it’s the US they can take care of themselves. We found a live TV feed on line which will help you follow the story more minute by minute than the recycled information from the NEws Networks like CNN. Go to New Orleans TV Link .
We’ll continue with the potblog and pottery related stuff in the next post. We visited Medicine Hat briefly and met Tim at Plainsman Pottery Supply. We have pictures to prove it!
Later…
In the Fall of 2001 Cindy and I were lucky enough to have a few days to tour the American Gulf Coast where Katrina has devastated everything. We met some wonderful people and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our time there. Our hearts and prayers go out to all those affected by this disaster. If you haven’t already done something and are wondering how to help we suggest you visit the
I noticed in looking back over the past few weeks I seem to always miss Wednesday’s entries. This time I am determined to make an entry for Wednesday, even if I have to fake it a few minutes as it is really Thursday morning, 12:30 am. We spent the day getting orders together to ship. We have shipments ready to go to Washington DC, Virgina Beach Virginia, Vancouver BC, New York, Atlanta Georgia, and Connecticut. We also put together an order for a retailer in Red Deer. Kick Wheel Pottery in Tucker, Georgia ordered a dozen DVDs today so they are starting to take off. We are still tentatively looking at shooting number 2 in a couple of weeks.
We are making a short road trip over the next few days to visit my Mother in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, then we are heading to Medicine Hat where we will visit the folks at Plainsman Clays, then on to Calgary to pick up some crates from Crates and Company, visit briefly with Robin at the Nickel Arts Gallery, then on to Red Deer to deliver some pots and home. Our typical trip, pack as much into as little time as possible. Back Tuesday to get the kids ready for the first day of school and we get back into the grind.
The big kiln was just starting to ramp down this morning when we got to the studio so we did not get in to it today. That means we have to get in there bright and early tomorrow morning and get the shipment ready and on its way to Images of Canada plus get all the other items on the way, before we can load up and head East.
Busy day today, busy and long day tomorrow. Probably no entries for a few days until we get back here. I’ll be carrying the camera so I should have some interesting material when we return.
until then…
nite
Yesterday’s high temperatures quickly became a memory as it cooled off over the day and tonight has been raining steadily, although not as much here as farther south. As usual will affect drying times. It’s really been "one of those Summers". My Mom and Dad always used to joke about the phrase "It’s been an unusual ..(fill in the season). " We moved several times as I was growing up from Texas to Missouri to New Mexico, back to Texas and finally Saskatchewan. Everywhere we moved the weather that year according to the locals was always unusual. Unusually cold, or hot, or wet, or dry, or windy,…etc. This year in Edmonton has been unusually cold and wet. Cindy talked to Les Haworth at Laguna Clay in California today and he sounded as if he would be more than happy to exchange places with us. Very hot and very dry down his way.
We unloaded the bisque kiln and glazed the remainder of the order for Images of Canada and loaded the 16 cubic foot kiln. Started that kiln on its way with three bows to the kiln gods. I packed the 8 fish platters in their respective crates. Just have to add the labelling and then get them boxed to ship. We’ll be standing by the 16 cubic foot kiln waiting for the temperature to drop enough to pull the pots out of it. We are going to have to get some fire proof shelves to set hot pots on! Images wants their order by Friday. We hope to get it shipped late tomorrow afternoon or at the very latest the first thing Thursday.
We got the kids registered today and all their fees paid! Ouch! KD for the rest of the month! Oh well, you get what you pay for and all four of us agree it is worth it.
I’ve spent the evening recovering Kaileigh’s computer from a meltdown. She somehow got a bug in it late last night that eventually shut it down. We were sleeping soundly when at 1 am we heard a small voice from the darkness…."Jim….my computer died!" No…we did not immediately jump up and try to resucitate the beast. instead we suggested maybe it would look better after a good night’s sleep. I didn’t get to it until 5 or so. She lost a lot of files which she is now trying to recover but the computer and operating system, etc seem to be working fine. I have a feeling she’ll be a little more careful out there from now on.
So…it’s cool and rainy again…it’s late……
nite
Today we got in to the studio a little after 9. Checked the kilns first. 16 was at 600 degrees so still a bit warm to open. 10 cu ft was 850 so right away we knew we wouldn’t be waxing and glazing those pots today. I began pugging clay for Cindy. Ran a hundred pounds through the pugmill, then went in and packed up a couple of small orders to take to the post office later. Big kiln was a little under 500 so we sneaked a peek. Top pots looked great. We are still running with zero margin for error so that was very encouraging.
We took a late lunch and then MLA Thomas Lucaszuk accompanied by his daughter Scarlett came in to the studio so he could sign the bowls he made for the Empty Bowls Auction in support of the Edmonton Women’s Shelter, Win House. We visited with them for a few minutes and he autographed his hand built bowl and his "ashtray" from the VIP morning of August 3rd.
After they left we started unloading the big kiln. All nine fish platters for the Images of Canada catalogue company came out looking "mahvelous"! Cindy joked we were right back in the swim of things.
The finished product looks pretty cool too!
As soon as the noodle bowls and belly mugs are out of the kiln on Wednesday we’ll ship everything off to Images of Canada. All three items are new in the catalogue so we will be in suspense for awhile to see how the products are received.
This afternoon we ran some errands, taking DVDs to the School Book Depository store in preparation for the new school term. We also picked up some Zinter Brown products to include in the fish platter boxes we are shipping out, then we ran by the Alberta Craft Council, checked our product display, and got some pictures of a tea pot for a customer in Connecticut. Then, back to the studio where we checked the bisque kiln temperature one last time and decided we would wax and glaze first thing in the morning.
We just can’t believe how quickly the Summer got away. Tomorrow Kaileigh goes to pay her fees and get her course schedules for grade eleven and on Thursday John gets his for grade nine, both at Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts. Seems like yesterday we were picking them up from their last day of classes, and next week they start again!
Time truly Flies!
nite
This will be a bit on the short side tonight. We went in to the studio and got a bisque going in the ten cubic foot kiln. The 16 was just completeing its ramp and hold and starting the slow cool down the other side. We might get in to it tomorrow. Also want to get into the bisque kiln and get those pots glazed and firing again so could be a long one tomorrow. Came home early in the afternoon and I completed and published the page on how we built our display booth. It is now online at http://www.howtomakepottery.com/potterydisplaybooth.htm . Looks pretty good. Will probably "tweak" it a bit over the next few days. Tomorrow I also want to get the photo booth set up to start taking pictures of the new product for the two other web pages.I’ll have to wait for the camera as Kaileigh took it today to get some city shots at the "Fringe". Another project I have in mind is working on the Edmonton Facts and Links page and dressing it up with some photos of interesting scenes from around the city. Kaileigh is one of my remote cameras and a fresh look at the city from the viewpoint of a sixteen year old. Should prove interesting.
Have a little shipping to do tomorrow too. Gives me an excuse to get outside! Today it was over 30 degrees for about the second time all summer. We’ll take it ,thanks. Has cooled off enough to sleep so that’s where I’m headed…..
nite
Just when we figured warm weather was a thing of the past, the sun came out this afternoon and the big city warmed up. Edmonton is the Festival City and this weekend two are underway. "The Fringe" began this weekend with food and frolic in the streets and plays featuring professional actors, amateur actors, wannabe actors, and "can’t" actors . It is also day two for the Blues Festival and if yesterday’s opening is any indication a good time will have been had by all by 10 o’clock tonight.
We spent some time in the studio this morning, waxing fish platters, sanding some pots, then glazing the load. As most of the pieces are double dipped we started the fans running and left the pots to dry for awhile until we can handle the glazes without them coming off on our hands. Biggest job glazing was the fish platters. They are 22 inches long and 8 inches across so don’t fit in your average garbage can/dip bucket very easily. This is where our new 44 gallon cans come in handy. With Cindy leaning the bucket over and 20 gallons or so of glaze, I am able to grab the platter with the big tongs and dip it in one fell swoop.
We came home, spent a little family time then returned to the studio a little before six and loaded the 16 cubic foot kiln for a glaze firing. We are giving it a really slow ramp up to 190 degrees (20 an hour) then holding it for 4 hours before ramping on up. This slow "candling" allows all the moisture to leave the glaze without blowing any off (in theory). We won’t know for sure how it went until sometime Monday.
Tomorrow we have a bisque kiln and another glaze load to get ready. Probably six hours or so in the studio.
Tonight I’ve been working on a new page for the How to Make Pottery Website. It is "How We Made our Display Booth for Showing Pottery". 
I am styling it the same as the "making pottery" and "packing pottery" pages. I took a lot of pictures as we were tearing down the booth at Rexall Place after the Gift Show, so it should work out good.
But, right now it’s getting late so…….
nite
Well the kids bus did come in early this morning, although not as early as scheduled. We got up at a quarter to 5 and headed downtown. Had just turned the corner when Kaileigh phoned to say an unruly passenger had delayed the bue for an hour and a bit so they weren’t going to arrive until 6:30. So…we went home and waited patiently, yeah right! Picked up the kids finally, came home, did breakfast and then everyone crashed for awhile. We went in and took care of the rice bowls. Put them in the drying racks and covered them with plastic.
Took the afternoon and unloaded the van and stored the booth in the garage. Put the seats back in the van.
This afternoon we took a little "R and R" and attended the opening of the Edmonton Blues Festival. The closing act was Koko Taylor, the Queen of the Blues.
Tonight we touched the hand of the Queen. After that there is nothing more to add.
nite
Finished up the Alberta Gift Show yesterday afternoon at 3 o’clock and started our tear down. Took all the product off the shelves and hauled it over to the studio then came back for the booth. We were, as usual, the last out of our section. Home a little after 8, in plenty of time to catch the results on Canadian Idol and watch So You Think You Can Dance…total mind diverting entertainment…..good way to unwind. We like these shows because it is very neat to watch some of these kids blossom to heights they might never have reached otherwise. It also is interesting to watch the elimination of some who peak before others.
We had a decent show. As I mentioned earlier attendance appeared to be way down. No one had a good explanation. The Alberta economy is hot, everyone is working, retail sales are up, just no buyers to be seen. Guess time will tell.
Product wise we are very pleased with what we had at the show, and the reception by people who saw it. We really think the MoonShadow glaze in the gift boxes is an eyecatcher, and in a modern decorating scheme this colour will sing.
See?! With some retro appliances and granite counters, etc. this is just the right splash of colour.
Anyway we were back into the studio today. Cindy was trimming rice bowls, I sponged and stamped belly mugs, and we moved the totes full of pots into the "front room" where I hope to start photographing everything next week so the web sites can be updated. We had friends drop in for a brief visit, and then we called it a day. The kids return from Dawson Creek early tomorrow morning (5:20 am) so we have to get up and meet their bus. It is a little far for them to walk.
Tomorrow we’ll unload the booth from the van and go in and glaze some internet orders.
nite
Alberta Gift Show Day three is over…finally. We are in Rexall Place which begins to resemble the Twilight Zone after a few hous. No windows, no clocks, artificial light and no buyers….oops, not quite accurate, but very few buyers. Something is obviously going on in retail land but we are not sure what it is. The Toronto show was down on attendance and the show failed to meet anyone’s expectations. This show seems to be following the same path. Vancouver next month….three strikes? Luckily we only attend the Alberta show but those vendors who go to all three shows are starting to get gun shy, and maybe a little bit broke..
I manned the booth today while Cindy went to the studio and threw some pots for orders with an early delivery requirement. I went to the studio later and delivered the engine seals to Sven from Rotor Sports. One set of the seals will be on an early afternoon flight to Australia tomorrow.
Final day of the show tomorrow. Not expecting much but you never know for sure until 3 pm and the last buyer leaves the building. Then the fun job of packing everything up, tearing the booth down and loading the truck. Probably will make two trips. Pack up the product and take it to the studio, then tear down and load the booth and bring it home for storage in the garage. Much less dusty storage place than at work.
Expect to be done by 9 or so so another 12 plus hour day. Oh well. Has been a good show as far as viewer respponse to the product goes. The new glazes are turning heads. Potters in the crowd are finding it hard to believe we are firing cone 6 oxidation. They all seem to think you have to be cone 10 to get the colours and glazes we have. Guess we are doing something right.
Once the show is over I’m taking all the product into the studio, setting up a photo box and getting all new pictures for the web sites. I figure that process will take a few weeks to complete. Have to do though in order to keep everyone current.
Should be fun.
I do want to get some pictures of the booth construcion details as several people have asked for same. Will add a page called "How We Build Our Display Booth " on the http://www.howtomakepottery.com site.
All for now, tired and going to bed.
nite
Day two started at 8 oclock…off to Staples to buy…..a stapler! and staples, and a staple remover! All for 6 bucks….made in China…go figure. Tried to find a made in Canada model but no luck. Even Swingline…."Made in China"….
In to Rexall Place a little after 8:30. Lights on, coffee made and ready to go. Less traffic than ususal today but good day for us. Trade shows down all across the country…Toronto was apparently "deadly"….so far Edmonton is slow as well…Vancouver next month…maybe all the buyers are going there?
Saw several old faces and a couple of new clients. One of our returning retailers really loved the "granite" glaze, although she insists on calling it "Speckled Trout". We met Kim "Claygirl" , a fellow Clayarter….she called it an oil spot glaze that’s not really an oil spot glaze….others have said it will go with any thing…think it’s gonna be a winner!
We heard more about our neighbouring exhibitor who we thought had had a fire. Turns out it was a flood. Melody of Earth n Fire Pottery and Candles had twenty minutes notice to evacuate. They cut the lines on their horses and literally headed for the hills. Lost everything. Insurance Company called it an act of God and refused to pay a nickle. Government promises some compensation…….oh, has Hell frozen over yet?…Tough break for a very nice lady. Took them two weeks to round up the livestock and they are living in a travel trailer.
We left the show at 6 and headed over to the studio. Firing some engine parts for Sven. He was very excited. He has developed some carbon rotor seals for rotary engines which he heat treats to a certain temperature for a certain time. He had just received a report from Australia that due to his development a certain racing team has developed an indistuctible rotary engine capable of incredible amounts of horsepower. Practically walking on air. Watch for a big press release shortly.We’ll meet him again tomorrow same time to deliver the parts to him. Tried to talk him into buying our old 7 foot kiln………!
Anyway…for us, while slow, has been a good show…..tomorrow, coming all too quickly, is bound to be just as interesting. Cindy is heading back to the studio to work on Images of Canada pre order. We talked to Anthony from there today and got a bit of a heads up on what numbers might be like. Looking Good……!
So…………
nite
Day one of the show is history and it was good. We think the traffic is down a bit from Sundays past but we did get some new clients and saw a lot of old ones coming to reorder. Very few potters at the show this time. We are not sure why. One of our neighbours from down the aisle had a fire this Spring which wiped out everything. We just learned about it today. She did candles as well as pottery, not sure of the cause of the fire. We were sorry to hear that because she was trying hard to build a business. We’ll be checking to see how she is making out.
Our corner booth set up nice and looks great if we do say so ourselves.
The south wall features pieces in our new glazes:
The West wall features our more established glazes:
And the big pieces have their own display:
While the tower has a running display of our DVD , our "Mountain Sized" teapot, and some flashy Mountain Mist with Rose pieces.
Here is the amazing part of this story. All these pots were boxes of clay on July 26th. Everything we have on display (plus two more totes in the back of the van which we didn’t have room for) has been made in the past three weeks. We think we did good!
The new glazes are proving popular. They are very different from anything else being offered by potters in this area. Cindy was approached by another potter today who said ,"Oh, I can’t do those colours, I’m cone six oxidation." She was surprised when Cindy told her so are we.
We are hoping since Sunday was slow Monday will pick up some. We’ll just have to wait and see. 8 am to 6 pm today…."Banker’s hours"!
nite
Well a busy couple of days. We unloaded all three kilns yesterday, loaded a light load in the 16 early yesterday the unloaded it this morning. Pushing a bit.. The 16 was maybe a little warm when we unloaded it. I set fire to the wooden shelf I sat the first pots on. I’ll try and get a picture later. Was under 600 degrees F by the kiln readout, possible the pots were a bit warmer than that. Good test of ovenware! We set up the booth yesterday. The 5 foot extension worked as planned. Now we have a 10 x 15 booth and looks great. Took all the pots we created since July 26th to Rexall Place and put them on the shelves, then priced them. Took two hours off and attended a marketing seminar. It was free and so was the food! A bit long but Fred Fox the facilitator presented some good stuff. Never too conceited as to think we know it all. Long day. late night. In the studio at 7 this morning and out of Rexall at 8 pm. Tomorrow will be nice..only 9 hours of smiling and taking orders (we hope!) I’ll get some pics tomorrow and share what we have done in a very short time. Until then………..
nite
Unloaded the 10 and reloaded with "Moonshadow". Got our first "granite" pots and they are great. Loaded another load in the 7 of Granite. The 16 is cooling. We’ll unload it first thing in the morning and load the rest of the Mountain Mist pots in there, load the booth in the van and go set up the booth, then back to the studio to sand bottoms, price, and pack pots.We spent the day on pots and booth building. I’ll post some shots of the setup when we’re done.
Here is a sneak peek at "Granite"!
It shows real well with "Moonshadow" and "Mountain Mist" so will be a great display.
We’re headed to bed as another long one tomorrow.
nite
One ten hour day followed by one 12 hour day in the studio. 16 cu ft load came out singing so we loaded it again. Unloaded bisques from the 7 and 10 and loaded a glaze load in the 10. Hope to get it turned around again today. Fired the 10 last night followed by the 16. Here’s what we found in the 16.
Unloaded it filled the large table.So we will have some pots for the show for sure!
Also building the extension on the booth. Luckily the garage space next to us is open and we have permission to use it so lots of room to lay everything out. Got a new 10 x15 carpet from end of the roll. Should look "spiffy"!
More later.
Jim
Well the final countdown has begun. Setup for the Alberta Gift Show begins Friday morning at 8:00. We headed into the studio around 9 this morning and right away headed for the big kiln. Was still 450 degrees so we waited for…oh…ten minutes or so then opened it and saw
Everything as it was expected. All the big platters made it through in one piece and the glaze stayed on the vases.
First the vases came out:
Then the platters. This is the stack of shelves I described yesterday.
We set the three vases and platters up on the tea boxes as we intend to do them at the show. We think they look pretty good. Once we hit them with the halogen lights they should sing!
Once we got the 16 unloaded we loaded a bisque into the 10. Mugs and small items thrown yesterday.,plus some things that didnt fit in the 7 cu ft from yesterday (It was still at 700 so not unloading it today). Started a very slow ramp up to 150 and then a long hold as some of the ware had not changed colour completely.
I started waxing rims on casseroles to prevent the lids from sticking. We use liquid wax emulsion applied with an artist’s paint brush.
Cindy washed pots and sorted them onto tables by preferred colour. I stirred up the glaze and we glazed all the Raven Wing, Northern Lights, and Mountain Mist pots.
We loaded the 16 cu ft kiln as full as possible. The really nice thing about these three glazes is that they all fire exactly the same way so we could load pots of different colours wherever they would fit.
Once the final pot was placed Cindy did her three bows to the kiln gods and we fired it up. A complete cycle takes over 20 hours so we won’t get into the 16 until Wednesday. We’ll do a quick turnaround on it and fire another glaze load right away.
Tomorrow we’ll unload the bisque from the 7 and reload it with the pots that are left. They are in "speed dry" mode tonight, sitting on top of the 10 cu ft while it does its bisque fire:
The bisque will come out of the ten tomorrow as well and we will load a glaze load in it. Starting with the granite and aqua pots.
I also want to get started on the extension wall for the booth. Since we increased to a 15 x 10 foot corner I have to get the modifications ready.
Cool tonight, good sleeping weather, so…
nite
Well, that’s it. We’ve been with HostWay for a little over 5 years now, and today for the first times we are aware, they had a server problem that made our blog inaccessible and then our web site was out for a while. I figure statistically speaking they are now only 99.9999% reliable. I may have to consider my options! Just kidding of course. Their customer service is second to none, 24/7 availabilty and they were on the problem right away, and kept us informed.
We had no time to spend online today anyway. We got to the studio a little after 8 and spent the day working on the show. Cindy accidentally left the mug pugs uncovered over night so I quickly pugged another 3 dozen and she threw them. The 16 cu ft kiln was ramping up after passing through the slow 900 to 1200 transition but with all the fans running the studio was no warmer than usual and there were no fumes left . I was able to wax all the rest of the bisqued pots in preparation for glazing. The big platters are a bit of a pain as they are too big for our wax pan. It is only 20 inches in diameter. Seemed huge when we had it made three years ago! Our work has grown. I use masking tape to mask off the parts of the platter bottoms I don’t want wax on, then use a paintbrush to paint the melted paraffin wax on the pot bottom. Once the wax has cooled I then strip the masking tape off. Makes a very straight clean wax line, which means we will have a very straight clean glaze line.
Once done waxing I went in and put handles on mugs and cream pitchers. Had to extrude some and set them outside in the sun for a few minutes . Some of the mugs I was "handling" Cindy had thrown just a couple of hours earlier and set outside. Glad the rain stayed away today. With the sun and a breeze things begin to dry fairly quickly.
As I was finishing the mugs Cindy finally threw the last pieces for the show. Three vases.8, 10, and 12 inch.
We sat for a few minutes and working from a list of the pots we will have if we get a 100 per cent success rate from the firings, decided which pots would get which glazes, and where they will go in the booth. We are gambling a bit going into this show. We are not taking two of "traditional" glazes, but instead are featuring two new glazes, "granite" and "aqua". We also are doing several platters and bowls in the glaze we have been calling our Centennial glaze which is made up of our Mountain Mist with the addition of a rose splash.
So at this show we will have "Raven Wing", "Northern Lights" , "Mountain Mist" both with and without rose, "Granite" and "Aqua". We’ll probably keep a little Sunrise Blue behind the booth just to show if someone asks.
We are taking the new 4 litre bean pots to the show for the first time, it will be interesting to see the response. The casserole dishes have also grown up again, getting a little larger. We have discontinued the twisted "Ribbon" Handle after five years. We are bringing back the sushi for four as we have had several requests for it including one of our repeat internet customers who phoned from Washington DC just to order one.
After planning out our glazing strategy we inloaded the 7 cu ft bisque and reloaded it. The 16 by this time was in its slow cool to 1500 so I started the bisque kiln back up. It had only cooled to 150 degrees so we are saving electricity!
Cindy trimmed the vases she had thrown earlier while I started waxing the just unloaded bisque pots. Then we called it a day. Very productive.
Tomorrow we’ll unload the 16, glaze pots and load the 10 and 16 to run consecutively. Since not all the glazes fire to the same temperature we’ll have to have a strategy session in the morning and make sure the right pots go in the right kiln. We also have more pots to bisque but since we cannot run all three kilns at the same time without twisting the electric meter off the wall (we want to keep the peak demand below a certain level) we’ll probably have to wait until Tuesday to fire it. That means those pots will be glazed and fired Thursday and come out Saturday. No problem. Show doesn’t start until Sunday at nine a.m.!
On a personal note we ship the kids off to Dawson Creek tonight for their 8 hour bus trip, leaving at midnight. They like that bus because they can sleep all the way there and Sunday nights the bus is lightly loaded so room to stretch out With them gone we can spend long hours whenever we need to in the studio without feeling the need to be at home being parents. So it works out for us all. They are quite excited. Kaileigh hasn’t been back to Dawson for a year and a half. Both are looking forward to renewing acquaintances with old friends.
I’ll get pictures tomorrow of the big stuff when we unload the 16. On pins and needles until then. Every pot we fire between now and the show needs to be absolutely perfect. What are the odds?
nite
Friday we made up some for lost time. Unloaded the 16 cu ft bisque load.
Another perfect load. I was really glad to see the ten fish platters make it through. Eight of them are ordered for Images of Canada, and I started with twelve, breaking two while trimming them. I tried to trim them before they were totally dry and they didn’t handle the stress very well. (Come to think of it, neither did I!) Still have two spares so that is cool.
Cindy worked on trimming and throwing more of the show pots and built a couple of teapots.
Recording artist Karla Anderson came in and signed her heart bowl from the VIP session. Very artistic first attempt!
She has just released her first CD and was in the city to play at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. Took time out from her busy schedule to sign her bowl.
I worked on slab platters and sushi sets for the rest of the afternoon. I took some pictures for an addition to the How To Make Pottery web site on slab building. We both ran out of steam about the same time so called it a day. The ten cubic foot kiln with all the big platters was still at too high a temperature for us to open it and feel safe. We can’t afford to lose any pieces this close to show time!
Today we went in and I unloaded the ten cubic ft bisque, then we loaded a bisque in the 7 cu ft. I pugged clay for mugs for Cindy, then took a quick trip over to Plainsman Pottery Supply to see Larry. All I needed was 2.5 kg of placing sand, but we had to have it before we glaze fired the big platters. $2.50 is pretty cheap insurance when it comes to a 22 Inch platter. Larry said he thinks our new kiln should be in this coming Thursday, so looks as if I have a project for the weekend following the Gift Show. We’ll retire the 7 cu ft, and put the new 16 cu ft in its place. I will have to run an exhaust vent and fan above this one as it is too far away from the window and existing fans. Luckily the old bakery building we are in has a wood frame extension on the walls above the brick so it should be fairly straighforward to do a decent job of venting. I think we’ll also have to talk to an electrician about installing another 200 amp service panel for us.
We had some lunch when I got back then went back to work. I waxed the big pieces. We then tried to figure out the best way to glaze them. We are using 32 gallon garbage cans for glaze containers. 
The problem is the inside diameter is 22 inches and narrows a bit as you go toward the bottom. A 22 inch diameter platter makes for a tight fit. I did buy a 44 gallon can but it is just taller, almost the identical diameter. We finally solved the problem this time with Cindy pushing on the sides of the can while I dipped the piece. No dipping tongs made which can handle anything this big without damaging the ware so I got to glaze my hands!. The vases were a problem as well. We decided to pur glaze into them and then roll them as we poured the glaze out, then dip the rim by holding the pot upside down. Once the rim had dried I pushed the vase straight down into the glaze trusting displacement to raise the level enough to glaze the whole outside. That worked good up to a point. The 30000 gram batch of glaze I mixed up a couple of weeks ago was not quite deep emough. Cindy had to do a quick splash all around the neck. Once I removed the vase from the glaze bucket she did a final touch up with a brush.
All in all they didn’t turn out too uneven.
Cindy did her splash magic on each piece and then we went to load the glaze load in the 16 cu ft, and…………….realized we needed the shelves from the 7 cu ft to set the platters on because the shelves in the 16 cu ft weren’t wide enough by themselves to support the entire diameter of the large platters. We stopped the bisque fire in the 7 cu ft, it was still at 150 degrees, just getting ready to start ramping up to 200. We unloaded that kiln, took the round one piece shelves, and sat one under each platter on top of the kiln shelves in the 16. I made sure there was lots of placing sand under each one. Four large platters and three large vases made up a kiln load. Had to get creative under the vases as well to make sure none of them were over a crack. Full support is necessary as at glaze temperatures the clay will sag if not totally supported. While I was loading the 16 Cindy reloaded the 7 using half shelves and odds and ends. Got a fair amount of the original load back in! SHe reprogrammed it to start up where it had left off and I set the 16 to ramp slowly up to 190 and hold until the other kiln had finished. Once we finished our pot juggling routine we decided we had done enough for one Saturday. It was also after 5:00, so although there is still some throwing to do we called it a day. We’ll get up at 6 and head in tomorrow morning. Can’t leave until everything is thrown. Has to be done tomorrow if we are going to make the show. We’ll also glaze and fire again in the 10 cu ft. We sat for awhile today and planned out how the display will be set up. All the big stuff will go in the extra five feet of our new 10 x 15 ft booth. We’re going to use the tea set crates we purchased some time ago as risers to display the large pieces. Should look prety good.
Started raining again! Just when we get some decent drying weather. Well, at least we aren’t sitting out on the side of the hill at Gallagher Park at the Folk Festival. Loses a bit of its charm when that happens!
Well, tomorrow is that proverbial, another day, so….
nite
We didn’t realize how keyed up we were for the Breakfast session until it was over. Today we feel as if we had been run over by a truck. Hard to find energy to get into what we wanted to do today. We went into the studio. Big kiln had fired as it was supposed to. Since the ten has the really big platters in it we gave them a soak at 180 degrees for 12 hours while the big guy was firing, then it kicked in. Was not finished until late this afternoon.
Cindy trimmed the bowls the VIPs threw yesterday. Some of them required a bit of creativity and special handling for her to be able to do a proper job of trimming but they came out looking good. Here are the bowls before trimming:
One in particular before:
and after:
All in all the bowls turned out really nice after their session on the wheel for trimming.We realized we didn’t explain shrinkage to anyone. The green pots will lose about 12% as they dry and are bisqued. Hopefully no one will think they are too small.
The hand built bowls look really good too:
We should have people starting to show up tomorrow to sign their thrown bowls and over the next week or so hope to collect all the signatures. Then it is just a matter of babying them through drying, bisquing and glazing. We decided we will leave the outsides mostly unglazed to show the texture, throw lines, etc, and just glaze the insides of the bowls. They should look really good.
After we finished with the Empty Bowls bowls (is that redundant?) we worked on the final beanpot handle design. Cindy pulled some handles for our big beanpots, the fourth attempt, and we worked at getting the angles and negative space just right. Here is what we wound up with:
We think it will be about a 4 liter pot. We also think it is fairly faithful to the old 150 year old Quebec Beanpot we used as our inspiration. We’ll see once we get it all the way through the process. We have three built for the show. The best way to test a new product is to take it to the buyers. If we sell a bunch then we know we did it right.
Well tomorrow we’ll head into the studio to do all the things we didn’t get done today and all the things we were supposed to do tomorrow as well so it should be a late Friday night. We’ll see. Hot weather so at least everything is drying as it should. Of course with kilns firing it makes it hot in the studio. Now I sound as if I should be farming. Never happy with the weather!
/p>
nite
Wow! What a morning! Cindy John and I arrived at the studio a few minutes after 5 Wednesday morning. The City TV van arrived about 5:25 and he started setting up. We made some last minute arrangements to chairs etc and the Heather Rondeau from WinHouse arrrived. We talked briefly, started making tea and coffee, then Randall from Fife and Dekel came in with trays of muffins, cinnamon buns, biscuits, scones and the fixings.
From 6 oclock on people started coming through the door. We did the first cut in from the studio a few minutes after 7.
City Host Bridget Ryan and Fire Chief Randy Wolsey did their best impersonations from the movie "Ghost" shortly after this photo was taken.
Cindy had her hands full as every 20 minutes there were two more inexperienced potters ready to try their hands at throwing a pot. The real challenge was it had to result in a usable bowl when the 20 minutes were up as the bowls are to be auctioned off at the fund raiser September 26th.
Darrell Coley of Edmonton Police Services tried to concentrate on his throwing while being interviewed by Bridget. Cindy was ready to lend helping hands when required, and they were required!
The Dinner and Auction will be held at the Sutton Place Hotel. Manager Ike Janacek was one of the participants in the Breakfast Throwathon.
While Cindy was working at the wheel Jim had several hand builders making bowls at one of the tables. There are several ways to build pots without a wheel. We decided that in the interest of time and of winding up with a finished bowl that was going to be fairly functional we would use some bisque bowl shapes and build the bowls inside, using them as molds. One of the big advantages of this is that the wet clay bowl is easy to dump out onto a board and can even be signed when finished. Three representatives of the Edmonton Eskimos Football Team,(wives not players!) were the first three to try the process. Joan, Allyson, and three time Olympic speed skating medalist Isabelle Charest are working here.
Noted Senator the Honourable Dr. Thelma Chalifoux breezed through making her bowl. I asked her if she had done this before and she said, Not with clay but with dough, many times!
One of the stars of the morning was Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel. It was an honour to have him in the studio and he made two bowls for the event.
Of course he was interviewed by Bridget while throwing. The mayor is a very strong proponent for the Edmonton Women’s Shelter , WinHouse, and all the good they are attempting to do.
MLA for CastleDowns, Thomas Lukaszuk, represented the Provincial Government and threw two very nice bowls. Unfortunately one of them was accidentally knocked to the floor. When we recovered it he converted it to an ashtray! He and Mayor Mandel have a friendly wager on now on who will receive the biggest bid at the auction for their respective works!
Thomas also tried his hand at handbuilding!
With final words of encouragement from the mayor we wound up the morning. 
Our job now is to take the bowls created by all the participants, trim them a bit, get signatures from those who have not signed them yet, bisque, glaze and achieve 100% success out of the kiln. No pressure!
Here it is appropriate to put a big thank you to our son John who took all these pictures. He did a great job and was the only photographer there!
Also, it would not have been breakfast without the contribution from Randall Liske of Fife and Dekel. He also threw and handbuilt pots for the event.
Once everyone had left and the TV crew had packed up we took a brief break then headed back into the studio. Put the wheels back in their normal locations, returned the shelves between them, then loaded pots to be bisque fired into both the 10 and 16 cu ft kilns as we continue the race to have some pots ready for the Wholesale show which begins next weekend, August 14.
Today Cindy has to finish the BeanPots , tea pots, and throw mugs, and other small items. I’ve got a bunch of platters, and sushi plates to make as well. Hopefully the weather will not turn any wetter and we can get everything dry.
I’ll also wax all the bisque ware sitting around the studio now in preparation for glazing tomorrow.
The kids leave late Sunday for a visit with all their old friends and family in Dawson Creek and Cindy and I go into Show Mode…flat out for a week and a half. If it wasn’t fun we wouldn’t do it….right?
jim