So Wednesday came and went. The ten cubic foot kiln was just finishing firing and starting its cooling cycle when we got to work. Cindy worked on green stuff making sure it was set up to dry correctly while I mixed some clay bodies to build a large slumped platter. Took three tries, wedging between each before I got the slab I needed from the slab roller. We are pushing the dimensions of the slab roller we have to build these platters. Need 23" width of 3/8" clay and the roller is 24" so not a lot of room to spare. Anyway we got the platter where we wanted it finally and it looks good. Now we’ll see how the new body works for slabs. It throws good for large pieces , bowls and such so should work for the slab platters too.
While we were doing that we got our fax contract from Images of Canada, the catalogue sales people. They are going with two of our products for the Fall and Winter catalogue so that is exciting. We filled all the proper blanks and faxed it right back. Curious to see what the initial order will be. We will work ahead of course. I went ahead and ordered more wooden crates. We hope to pick them up the end of August in Calgary.
After that excitement we decided we would go visit Larry at Plainsman Pottery Supply. Picked up another 10 boxes of clay. That gives us a stock of 40 boxes (1760 pounds) so we can throw the show and whatever orders come in for the next little while. Gives us some extra for experimenting too. Larry still had no word on our new kiln.
We ran a few errands and came home early.
Today we went in late as I had to print labels for the latest order to ship to Lake Louise. Then we went in to the studio, unloaded the ten cubic foot, sanded and ground as necessary, (one of the idiosyncracies of the Mountain Mist with Wild Rose glaze is it doesn’t always want to stay on the pot exactly where we want it to. Anyway got them all spiffy and attached the labels, then Cindy and I packed up the pots for the bus.
We shipped the pots then stopped by the Alberta Craft Council Gallery to see if the pots we delivered there three weeks ago were on display. To our disappointment they were not. Seems the manager is the only one who can catalogue and set up displays and she didn’t have time to get our pots out before she left on vacation! As a result our fantasy about Paul Newman getting one of our mugs for a souveneir while he is here for the Grand Prix was dashed. Now we have to hope they get them set up in time for the World Masters Games the end of this month. Over $2500 worth of pots we worked overtime to produce and get down to the shop are all sitting in boxes during tourist season. We are not amused.
We took one more tour by the studio to check on drying then called it a day. Tomorrow we have a full day planned. Going to start cleaning the studio out in preparation for the big TV shoot first of August. Four years of clutter must be eliminated. We’ll see…….
nite