Lucky Dog is the new clay studio resident, he's not terribly helpful so let me know if you know anyone who might be interested in being a resident!! (Hmmm... high school students?? Bonus they'll get volunteer hours! Co-Lin students? College kids home for the summer? Retired? We're looking for someone interested in some grunt work in exchange for workspace basically)
If you've got holiday gifts on your list, now is the time to wrap up those so we can be sure to get them fired in time! Please remember to bring a piece for the pottery exchange at the holiday party! That will be December 19th at 6pm. I only heard back from a few of you but it looks like that is the best day for the majority of you who chimed in for the holiday dinner. I'll be sending out a food list so you can sign up for what we will need. The pottery exchange is very fun and everyone really does love what they get so don't say you're too much of a beginner to participate! I see everyone's work and love it all!! As always, family and friends are welcome at the dinner!
A glaze load is firing now, should be ready to unload later today. I will be running a bisque probably tomorrow. If you have pieces ready to go, please place them on the shelves. We have several loads of work on the shelf for fired pieces, it's getting full so come by and check on what you've been having fired! I will not have a set firing schedule for December. I will fire either bisque or glaze depending on which shelf is full and ready to be fired. I know the shelves are not labeled but I occasionally find something in the wrong place, the shelves on the left are for pieces needing to be bisque fired and the shelves on the right are for pieces needing to be glaze fired. I usually figure it out but please keep this in mind!
Conner Burns will be teaching two classes with us starting in January. Please check those out and register if you are interested. We need a minimum of five students for each class. If you know others who have wheel experience who might like to have him give them pointers, please spread the word. I'll be taking the bowl class, it'll be a change for me to be the student. As I always say, take advantage of opportunities when different teachers are available! Especially for throwing on the wheel, there is always something to be learned from other potters!
Speaking of classes, I will be taking a break at least for January and February from the kids' classes. I need to put my time and energy into getting my house put back together. I am talking with a couple of people about teaching classes but if there is anyone you know (or you!) who may be interested in teaching, please let me know. Our classes can be flexible after school hours. I choose what I am doing, what ages, and when so the whole program is very flexible. We can do clay, sewing of all sorts, "regular" art classes like drawing and painting etc, other crafts, scrapbooking, you name it and we can offer it- pretty much whatever curriculum someone might be interested in teaching for a month or two of weekly classes to keep our program active while I take care of myself are welcomed!
I am getting the main studio room set up over the next several days for the student art show this Thursday evening. Sorry for any inconvenience with things being tidied up and shuffled around for that!! I have classes both Tuesday and Wednesday then wrap up until I'm able to teach again.
We will need to do some studio maintenance jobs soon. It is also time again to sign up for studio chores. I will bring in a new monthly chart for that. All of your help is very much appreciated but I do ask that everyone chip in and help out. It lightens our load tremendously when others give Liz Blalock and me a hand. I'll get some dates together for the chores we need to take care of, now that the weather is not too hot to be outside, I'd like to tackle what's on the list and get the studio back in its best shape. As studio members, these chores are also smart to learn. You never know when you may be asked to step in and help out and the more folks who know how to do things like grind kiln shelves, prep and mix glazes, do electrical repairs on the kilns, etc, the better off the studio will be as a whole. This fall taught me that we need to have people who know how to run things if something crazy comes up!
I am aware that several of our glazes are quite low. Cascade, Clear Blue, Goodrich Cranberry, Teal, Luscious Yellow, Raw Sienna, and possibly Op Egg will all be retiring when the buckets run out. I have Field Mouse Gray and Gaude Green ready to add water to the glazes and I will get that done later this week. I will be mixing up NuClear in a five gallon bucket since so many of you are getting interested in underglazes! Yay for fun surfaces!! I've got a list of glazes to make test amounts so remember, look around on Pinterest or glazy.org for cone 6 glazes I'd theree is anything you'd like me to test for the studio. I fired all of our glazes on the Alligator Wheatstone we now have in the studio and there were some really nice results, those are out for you to see.
I know this was a long update, thanks for getting to the end! Ha! Looking forward to our holiday dinner together! See you all around the studio!!
Sarah