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