It's a GIRL!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that Lindsay and I are having a little baby girl! The ultrasound went great today and everything was perfect! Got to see the baby yawn on the ultrasound and saw the little 'girl parts'. At first I thought we had a very well-endowed baby, but it turned out to be the umbilical cord. :)

Speaking of umbilical cords--that thing doesn't just come right off after birth!! It stays there for a couple of weeks! What's up with that???? I must admit, I'm a bit freaked out about some of the gross stuff, but I know I'll get over it once she gets here. At least she cant pee on me while I'm changing diapers ;)

Where have I been?

Man it's been FOREVER since I've updated, or even really had a chance to comment on others blogs--and I have been missing it. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! Mine was nice and quite, which I needed. I also had a good amount of time off of my day job, and I put in a good many hours in the studio over the past week or so. I have been working on some new bakers and serving dishes that I am really happy with. They are split rim pieces that I had never tried before, but now I really like the outcome. I can't wait till they are glazed! I think tomorrow night, I'm going to take some better photos of one of the servers to put up on the critique blog for some honest feedback. But let me know what you think now anyway :)

I also have a new bowl form to go along with my other work that I think works fairly well. I burned through pretty much all of my clay, so now I get the joy of picking up more. I've got some good and smelly reclaim drying out, but nothing is drying again. I sometimes wonder if I've got the patience for ceramics. I bring out the torch an awful lot nowadays and still always seem to trim too wet. Oh well, whatcha gonna do?

Decal Disaster

Ok, so I've had requests to show the carnage. Here they are! I talked with Keith over at Mudstuffing Pottery who has fantastic decal work and he and I decided that speed had a lot to do with it. No, I wasn't on speed and ruined a bunch of pots! I fired super fast (like 3-1/2 hours to cone 05), and we are pretty sure that's not a good thing for decals. He suggested that I toss a couple pieces in my next bisque which is a lot slower to see the affects. So, after I do that, I'll hopefully post pictures of pots all in one piece ;)

What's been going on

Lidded casserole...I like it!

It seems like there is just never enough time to get everything done. I haven't made anything new since my trip, but I have to admit, the break has been nice. I am ready to get back into the studio and start a new making cycle--I have lots left unchecked on my make list. I've spent the past few days cleaning up the studio. It was a complete disaster! I can now see the floor for the first time in quite a while. I also purged my shelves of all of my old work--a couple hundred pots met their early demise by way of hammer! I had a ton of work that was bisqued and never glazed that I got rid of. It was all work that wasn't my best and didn't represent where I'm going, so I thought--'Why is this old crap taking up valuable shelf space?' Out came the hammer, and now I have room! It is wonderful! Shelves just waiting to be filled with new work!

I know the debate over wasted energy and resources, and I do feel bad when I think of how much clay and energy I wasted destroying bisqued and glazed pots, but I just couldn't feel comfortable selling, or even giving away that work. I am really bad about looking at past work and wondering what in the world I was thinking when I made it. I guess I need to get better at glazing pots more quickly, before I get the chance to find that I don't like them any more ;)

How do you all feel about trashing unwanted work?

I also tried my first toner decal firing last night, and it was a total flop. Fortunately, I used pots that I was planning on trashing anyway, because they all met Mr. Hammer in the end. I think that I may have bought the wrong decal paper because it didn't burn off! I fired to cone 05 for Pete's sake! I thought it was clear decal paper, but when I applied it, it was white. I thought oh well, it'll burn off. Wrong! I have no idea how it was still there at almost 1900 degrees, but it was! I know most decal firing is like cone 018, so how come my paper was still there? I have also heard of firing back to cone 6, but I didn't want my glazes to get another melt. They did anyways and all of my mattes looked like poo. They became super matte and felt like sandpaper. The gloss glazed pots looked ok, but decal paper was still there. The only good news was that the toner didn't burn off either, so I can keep experimenting! Any input on what the heck might have happened and why my paper was still there?

Let's all go to Mexico!

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip! Enjoy (and be a little jealous ;)

This is of our room. Notice the two person jacuzzi in the corner. Unfortunately, Lindsay couldn't get in because of the baby. It was quite sweet though--I made sure to give it some use.

Here is our view where we spent two whole days doing a whole lot of nothing. The actual beach was really rocky, so they blasted out these neat lakes that filled with ocean water and lots of fish.


I enjoyed the snorkeling:Chichen Itza had its ups and downs, but here we are conducting our own tour--we did a way better job than the tour guide.

And here are a couple of friends we made.


Part of the view from our balcony.


We had a really wonderful time! The resort is adults only, so it has a great getaway feel. I would really love to go back, but someone else would have to foot the bill again--I don't even want to know the cost :) Back to pots tomorrow!

I'm Baaaaack!

We got in late Sunday night after a delayed flight, and I've been trying to catch up on all of my online stuff. I had like 120 blog posts to go through!! I may follow a few too many blogs ;)

We had a fantastic time! It was truly wonderful! I swear I could live there! Well, I might weigh about 500 pounds and never leave the comfort of my beach chair or hammock.

I'll be getting back in the studio tomorrow night, so maybe some pots then. I'll post some photos of the trip in the next couple of days. Hope everyone is well!

VACATION TIME!

Lindsay and I will be leaving out tomorrow for our vacation in Mexico. A while back, our family business won a trip for equipment sales, so we get to go to an all inclusive resort in Mexico! It will be Lindsay's first time flying in a commercial airline (her father owns a flight school with mostly single engine planes), and her first time out of the country. I'm no world traveler, having only been to Mexico once before on a mission trip, but we are sooo excited! Warm weather and white sand beaches here we come! (And the free food, drinks, and excursions don't hurt either ;)

Check it out here