make, make, make all day long

One thing that's become apparent as we have started to make pots is that our studio space is very humid. Which is really something we were shooting for when we put our floor in. Our floor is "coarse fines" which is crushed stone (limestone in our case,I believe), from sand size particles down to dust. It packs nicely and seems to hold moisture well. I believe our "coarse fines" had spent some time in the rain before we brought it into our studio space. I still haven't finished the mugs I started Sunday due to the slow drying. In general I like slow drying studios, the pots dry more evenly and there is a large window of time in which you can finish your work. This is just a little excessive. I imagine the humidity will come back down to a more pleasant level soon though, and we might even find ourselves watering the floor by January. As a side note I think the "coarse fines" might end up being a good glaze ingredient with just a little ball milling. We're hoping to do quite a bit more glaze and slip testing after our first firing. For now though we just need to keep at it and make more pots. I'll end the post with a couple of shots of what we've been making. Christy has been making boxes. The lids have yet to be cut off of the actual box in the picture, they need to dry a bit more before that happens. And I've been making some bottle vases. Somewhat of a new shape for me. I was inspired by a picture of a Chinese bottle from the Yuan period that I saw while reading Pioneer Pottery. It's a great book. I found it a little dry when I read it nine years ago, just too technical. Now I find it pretty much indispensable. Really one of the best books, explaining the chemistry behind clay and glazes, the processing of raw material, making of saggers (which we hope to get done sometime here), and apparently inspiration.
Joe