danuv

I was throwing together a playlist of "Christian music that I used to listen to that doesn't suck so much" on Spotify, just songs that I still occasionally like to listen to and upon looking up The Choir noticed that they had a short bio typed up that in part said "Atmospheric alternative rock bands like Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine influenced this alternative-Christian rock group."

What? Their musical inspiration didn't spring straight from God?! Shocking. Of course I'd never heard OF either of these bands when I got into The Choir much less listened to them because no, we needed our art recycled and made 'safe'. Heaven forbid we get any dangerous thoughts or ideas.

Wonder if Spotify has any D.A. hrm....

Our WoW guild (my WoW guild I guess?) has always been a pretty laid back, friendships first, close knit guild that dabbled in a lot of things and always had a raid group or two but never were hardcore. We made progression but not at an incredibly fast rate or anything. Suddenly now in Firelands we're #3 on the server. We've done 6/7 of the bosses. Sunday we have one of the bosses they've already done to knock out and then we work on Raganros. It's kind of a shocking scenario to suddenly find ourselves in. We're significantly undergeared compared to the other two guild due to our lack of heroics in the last tier and have had some instability with one of our slots but done just incredibly well. I'm sitting here watching trade chat and the other Horde side guild that is ahead of us is working on Rag right now I imagine, so if they get him we'll probably find out in trade... and really, I'd like them to. I don't want to go into Sunday's raid with that pressure. I know most of the raid group would LOVE a server first, and yeah it'd be fun, but I don't need it and I really don't need that stress. I'll just try and stay as chill as possible. Argh.

Fantastic day. Went to the studio around noon, picked up all the stuff I'd had waiting to be fired in the gas kiln that finally ran for the first time since I've been there. Like Christmas I tell ya. There were also a couple of the first of the "better mugs", mugs since I've learned to do handles properly, that I glazed for the electric kiln last week, so I brought home a lot of small pottery pieces including 6 mugs. Then I glazed the 6 mugs from the second set of "good" ones. Four have been sent to wait for the gas kiln to run again and two for the electric because I'm impatient. I need to find some glazes I like for the electric kiln. Then I threw, and threw and threw. I also had Luba (the owner) work with me on trimming the tops of wet pieces with a needle tool because I'd been sucking at that and also had her show me how to shape a vase that is collared (closed tighter) at the top.

I'll probably go back tomorrow and trim all those pieces. Then tomorrow night the mother in law is coming to watch the kids and we plan on going to see 13 Assassins and I want to get Japanese food at a local place that's supposed to be great. That might not happen because getting me into a new eating establishment pushes my social anxiety buttons. I don't know why.

Great time at the studio today. I trimmed some pieces, glazed some stuff (all of which I put to be gas fired, hope they run that one soon) and got Luba (the woman who owns the place) to help me learn to pull handles better. Then I threw and threw and threw. I feel like I'm starting to get some consistent results and am able to make mugs the shape I want and the size I want. I need to work on throwing them just a bit thinner. I've also learned I really don't like groggy clay. When I go back on Thursday I'll probably just glaze, trim and put handles on pieces. I also had a long talk with the other owner about glaze chemistry. That was quite interesting.

Weird things are happening to my body as I age. I mean there are the normal things, the little wrinkles starting to show up and more grey in my hair but then there are the things that were totally unexpected... I've all but lost the "beauty mark" that lived to the right of my mouth all my life, I've gained two symmetrical spots, one on each eyelid and my pronounced widow's peak has disappeared. Maybe the strangest thing is that my hair has gone curly. It seemed wavier lately but I noticed last night after I washed it and it dried (with no product at all in it) that it was actually well and truly curly. Growing up my dad seemed determined to make my hair curl despite the fact that it was board straight and I went through numerous perms, painful curlers and sessions with a curling iron, so having it suddenly want to be anything but straight is just damn odd. Who knows.

I'm enjoying my time at the pottery studio. Generally I go on Saturdays and once during the week my mom comes up to watch the kids so I can go again. I nearly finished one bag of clay that was a porcelain stoneware mix and got another bag that is just stoneware. It was supposed to throw easier but honestly I think I like the first stuff better. I'm mostly only making mugs and a few bowls right now, I want to get consistent with them. My handles look like crap. Pulling handles feels slightly obscene and I probably rush it leading to uneven lumpy messes. Maybe I should just learn to cut them.

Getting out on my own is good for me. It's falling into a comfortable routine with just enough difference from day to day to challenge me a little. I guess I'm rewiring my brain. I am quite sure I come across as a terrified mouse while I'm there but I can only do so much. There are a gadzillion rules related to cleanliness there and I'm always worried I'll violate one of them. It's such an enormous place with so many options and tools that I feel a little lost when I venture into a new area (like glazing). It'll get easier, my pieces will get better and I'll grow more confident with people, pottery and new places. It's a good thing. The studio close to me is doing an intermediate class in June that I will be signing up for. I think we're going to make a tea pot.

Long day. Got groceries for Easter this morning, headed off to Mudfire (the new pottery studio) after lunch and ended up losing almost four hours there. I took all my small bowls from last weekend to be bisque fired and got to see the kilns... a huge gas beast, a row of electric kilns and three awesome looking raku kilns... then I trimmed the four pieces I did on Monday and learned to pull handles which I then applied to two of them. After that I threw and managed to get six larger pieces done, well larger for me. Anyway, sore now. Tired. Tomorrow is Spring Candy Day.

Rhiannon just came in dangling this 'training' bra that was white with pink trimming and had multi colored polka dots and a perky little panda head on it. She glared at me with a look of utter disgust on her face, "Really mother? Really?" (I guess I inadvertently tossed it into her laundry pile). "Well" said I, "you might be feeling particularly perky one day!" "Never. Ne-ver."

Picked up my first non shattered pottery pieces today, just three. The rest should be done sometime next week. These were the ones I had to use boring commercial glazes on. One little pot with teensy ear lobe sort of handles came out quite cute which is good since its my favorite, then there was a small uninteresting green bowl which has gone to live with my mother in law and a larger bowl which I actually liked the shape of but loathe the thick brown glossy glaze on. It was supposed to "break red" and did not. I suspect it was too thick.

While I was there I bought a small pitcher that my teacher had for sale. It was more than I should be spending on something like that but it's just so lovely. I'll use it for my half and half so I can handle it every day and it will give me something to aspire to. My life needs more handmade things in every day use.

Pottery class was interesting last night. When the teacher went to buy her usual clay for the class back when we started, they were out and not expecting it for several weeks so she went with their suggested alternative which they assured her would be fine. Twas not. The clay did not play nicely with her glazes and the pieces I glazed last week broke, cracked and have glaze chipping off of them. Not good. She felt horrible about it.

(pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=92356&id=1646136997&l=3afc06cac1 )

The good news is that I have five pieces made in that clay that hadn't been fired yet and which we can use different glazes on and will be fine and we started using a new clay last week which won't have the same issues. We have two more weeks, she says we'll throw next week and have a glaze-a-thon the following week though I'm not sure when we'll glaze what we do next week.

Today I found myself talking to my mom about cleaning out the garage behind their house and buying a wheel. The garage had been divided into a large woodworking studio for my granddad and a much smaller ceramics studio for my granny. She hasn't worked out there in a long time but has two kilns (she did poured molds). It also has the advantage of being somewhere my kids could be safely entertained and play while I work as opposed to the 'by the month' studio I was considering joining (and may still). The downside is that I have to buy a wheel (easily $1000) and supplies and I won't have people around to help me learn like I would at the studio. It would all be self directed learning (books, internet etc) which might be ok if I can supplement with classes.

Guess it's just the time for packing things up into boxes and putting them away metaphorically and literally.