"Two-piecer" Successful

Despite two days spent with a job interview at a school for a position next year, and working to get prepare lesson plans for the substitute for those two days (it takes three times longer to plan for a sub than for teaching your class), I was able to finish the casserole and complete a larger piece. The casserole was really drying out too much and I was working to get the handles and a decorative disc to adhere to the piece. The disc I created from a mold that Susan (my wife) gave me last Christmas - there are four designs on the mold and although it is not something I would want to use all the time, it is pretty neat how it works and fun to mess with every now and then. I also made use of a Playdough machine which really worked well as a miniature extruder.

The larger piece is my first successful time joining two pieces together to make a larger single piece. I was pleased with how the pot came out, especially the weight of the piece. I know I will be experimenting with that method in the future to make even larger pieces. This is part of the work I am doing to get ready for the upcoming show.

I would have started out my day working on pottery, but ended up helping Susan feed and take care of a friend's horses most of the morning. It was pretty enjoyable being outside in the cold (about 25 degrees this morning when we went out at 8:30 am and about 40 degrees when we finished up around 11:oo). I mostly took care of breaking ice off the water barrels, refilling water buckets and distributing hay and feed. Susan took care of the mucking of the stalls and actually handling the horses to get them to different pastures.

I am hoping to spend a good part of this afternoon working with pottery. Besides some ideas for different pieces I want to try, I have started coming up with some drawings of stamp designs that I would like to make for decorating. I am really trying to come up with an original design that will express Straydog Pottery and can be put on a stamp that can be used to mark my work instead of making each mark by hand on the bottom during the finishing process. That would leave on the date to put on the bottom. Right now I date each piece, but it has been suggested that I number each piece and record the number in my kiln log - still thinking about that one.