One of the important things about being a studio member is joining in and helping out with the chores of the clay studio. If you have not already signed up for the regular monthly chores, please do that. It's on the wall by the light switch. If you have signed up, please give that a look and see when you're supposed to be taking care of what things.
Sunday March 17 starting at 1:30 we will have a deep clean day. We need as many members as possible to help out with this. In preparation for this, please take the time to clean off, wipe down, and organize your personal shelves. To be sure they are in fact clean of dust after sponging off, please dry them with a towel. This is a good time to wipe down tools, containers, buckets etc and get your shelf nice and fresh.
If you are not available March 17, please let me know as soon as you can. If this turns out to be a bad day for most members, we will reschedule. I am doing a bit of traveling on weekends through April and that's one weekend I'm in town. I'd like to get the cleaning done before it starts getting too warm out since it will involve a lot of outside working. We will be hosing off boards, shelves, wheel pans, buckets, tools, etc. and we will be grinding, scraping, washing and recoating kiln shelves, things that can't be done inside.
The Bowl and Trimming class is humming along, you may have noticed a lot of large work being cranked out! I know I can't use all the bowls I am making in this class so I'm thinking ahead to Empty Bowls and I'd like all of you to start doing that as well! We will need a place to store bowls, I do not know if Donna or Patricia have any space to store them but I know I do not so if anyone would be willing to keep a tub full of bowls until the event, let me know. If you weren't able to take his class this time around, I really recommend it next time he offers it or something similar. Everyone is being challenged in a good way and it's nice to see the work coming out of the class and the bonus is going to be some nice donations to Empty Bowls!
I'd like to start thinking about another member dinner. We can do Tuesday March 19, Tuesday March 26 or Thursday March 28. I'd like this one to be a bring a guest dinner followed by a pinch pot party/mini open house to introduce more people to the school and what we are doing. Please think about friends you know or work with who may be interested in a creative outlet to bring along for that! Or former members we all miss who might just get lured into returning...
The new panel for the large kiln has arrived. That will be hooked up and running soon! We will be using the large kiln as often as possible to save wear and tear on the small kiln which will mean firing a little less often. With the large pieces being made now, it shouldn't be a problem for timing things, but keep this in mind if you have a deadline. When those come up, let us know and we can fire the small kiln as needed.
Donna has a nice group for her hand building class, I'm glad she's able to introduce new folks to the studio! she is planning on continuing this class for a second round of handbuilding which is great news!
One last thing, we don't have a date yet but as you are doing your own spring cleaning at home, keep the school in mind when you have usable things you're considering donating. When we move back into the house (and yes, one day soon we will get back in there lol) we will be doing a good bit of paring down things and have been mulling over having a parking lot sale to raise money for the school. Let me know if you have things to donate for that. We will get back with a date and a plan for that since it will be another time we will need helpers.
Happy playing in the clay! Don't forget to mark your calendars for the deep cleaning and to let me know which day is best for dinner. Thanks for everything!!
Sarah