Tuesday, September 16, 2008

it's been a while


I have been a busy, busy woman lately. This weekend was the Fall Faire and the entire town came out. We saw giant vegetables, giant flowers, we experienced some face painting and bobbing for apples. We listened to some wonderful local music, watched some amazing skateboarding and bmxing and we sold some pots.


I have been furiously squirreling away coffee mugs. I have set myself a schedule and each item gets set days. I am overflowing with mugs right now and they have move on through the process because next week I start on pitchers and jugs.


My lessons are progressing nicely and I have been sharing all kinds of fun tips (like the one above). I really enjoy teaching.


We have an election coming up here in Canada. We are speedier in process than our neighbors to the south. The election was called last week and we will be voting in October to elect (hopefully) a new prime minister. I am all about democracy and voting. So get your vote on everybody!


My sweetie was tired of listening to my incessant whining about lack of storage space and he kindly took time out from his shop construction to build me a new storage rack. I am happy and feel like I have a little more elbow room. Thank you Matt! I will try to be more on top of posting. New work is coming but you probably have to wait about two weeks to see it.

5 comments:

Linda Starr said...

Hi Cheryl, What a great rack. Are those dowels as cross members?

The festival sounds like it was a lot of fun.

Is the tip something to absorb excess water?

I was reading your blog's older posts and you mentioned sanding the bottoms of your pieces. If you don't mind my asking, what do you use or how do you sand? Are you using porcelain clay and is it necessary to sand everything? I am asking because my instructor suggested I sand my stoneware pieces. I had mentioned they were rough when placed on tables and table cloths, but I wondered if I used porcelain if I would have to sand those bottoms.

I wish there was someone experienced like you near me to take a class from. Sometimes I think it might be better to take classes from someone working in the clay profession rather than a college instructor who doesn't actually make pottery for everyday use.

Looking forward to seeing your pieces come out of the kiln.

gary rith said...

I know what you mean, gotta fill the shelves (and what fine shelves you have now) for xmas sales and to fill up the check book for winter....

Kirsten said...

Looking forward to the "Stephen Harper is a stupid-head" mugs...

Cheryl Alena Kinzel said...

Hi Linda, yes, those are dowels, it works really well, the boards seem to slide along easily.

I do sand the bottom of my pots after glaze firing. The best is a pumice stone and some water, second best is wet/dry sandpaper. I do not want my pot bottoms scraping people's tables.

The tip is something I learned in my apprenticeship. I use an old cd to smooth and shape the inside of my bowls. They are perfectly bowl shaped with this method and they stack very well.

Linda Starr said...

Thank you so much Cheryl for taking the time to respond. I am slowly learning all the tricks of the trade as I go. I noticed my casseroles and plates were scratchy on tables and on tablecloths and wondered how to alleviate that. I first tried porcelain, but some glazes come out prettier on stoneware, so now I can still keep using that clay for functional ware too. I am looking forward to trying the pumice stone and water.

What a great idea using a CD, I will have to try that.

Thanks again.