Busy Friday

Today was a busy day. Started out running this morning with a friend for 5.5 miles, of which our path took us down and up a fairly steep hill. We didn't slow down for the hill either, which really made us work hard to keep the pace! I think my legs will be sore tomorrow... LOL.

After breakfast was a trip to the arts center so I could work on trimming the parts for a ceramic gum ball (candy) machine and assemble them. I've included a photo of the assembled machine. The body holds the candy, and with the turn of the handle, it should drop the candy down an internal chute and empty into the tray below via the hole you see on the side. I also trimmed and decorated a jar with a bulb stopper. So I spent about 7 hours there at the arts center working on those pieces, and didn't even stop for lunch! Yes, I was hungry after that, and my late lunch was a small tuna sandwich and some ice cream for dessert. I'll need to eat something else later, that's for certain!

When I was checking my email, I saw that my friend Jared was online. Jared is in China right now visiting his lady there, so I started chatting with him for a few minutes to see how things were going. Seems things look promising so far, which is good. I also chatted a few minutes with my friend Ning about some possible farmers markets we may try for selling pottery in the future. We also decided on a time for tomorrow morning's farmers market here in the central park, so I'll need to get up early tomorrow and set up our tables there. Sure hope the weather cooperates, as the past few times have been less than optimal from mother nature's side.

Then I worked on trimming and decorating some pottery in my own studio. I've take a couple of photos to share so you can see some of the ideas I'm working on at the moment. The vessels were thrown yesterday, so they have hardened enough to try using the slip on them today. I'm hoping this will help avoid the collapses I've experienced recently. Also they are a more vertical form, so I think that will help a bit too.

The names I'm assigning them are: Spikey Jar, Crater Vase, and Rosebud Vase. If they survive the drying process, I plan to make more (and different) ones, as I really like the effect of the slip for making shadows and texture. The spikey jar texture reminds me of the meringue on a pie. Somehow I don't think the slip will taste anything like it though! LOL. Besides that, the slip is very strong smelling... something like the odor of pig manure... from the bacteria that grows in it... which is what gives it such a smooth texture. And YES, I do wash my hands well after working with it - usually... LOL. I'm just keeping my hopes up that I won't have them collapse.

I wrote back to Li earlier this week. She was concerned in an earlier letter that using EMF's might be a bit expensive for keeping in touch as friends. So I mentioned that she may want to sign up for an online email address. I'm not sure if she was aware that she could get one for free and then use it to write me when she finds access to a computer with internet access. I think this could work well for us to keep in touch when she gets moved back to her home city and starts work at her parents store there sometime this next month.