whats going on.

i've finished all the yunomi for our wedding. i'm glad that i was already stocked up on these because i don't know that i'll want to make any for awhile. i tried some variations of shapes that i make but of course that last couple boards were the best, to me. they were my basic form but had become much looser and casual, the result of the repetition i'm supposing. i purposely didn't make them all exactly the same, they're all formally similar but different in the proportions of the curves and gesture. i'll try and snap a picture tomorrow if i can find my camera.

i mixed up a couple hundred pounds of a new clay body that i'll potentially be using. its mostly a fireclay body and is very nice, it needs a little tweaking but its promising. i made a bunch of my "standard" work with it and i am making a bunch of slab work with it as well. i'm spending some time off the wheel and have been coming up with new ideas for slab work. this new body is much more responsive to the slab process so its opening some new doors for me. my back has been hurting me a lot lately(too many yunomi?) so i think it would be wise to try something new for awhile. for those who don't know, when i was 20 i fell about 7 or 8 feet onto my side and knocked my lower spine out of alignment. it has flared up every now and again and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. i used to throw standing up but absolutely hated it, but throwing seated is giving me too many problems so i'm going to try this half sitting half standing thing that don brimberry does.

my friend kent harris started a blog that can be seen here. he is an amazing potter, we met a couple years ago at a show and have hit it off. down here in texas its hard to find young people who have made it through college and have still stuck onto the romantic ideal of traditional pottery. sometimes i think we're the only ones down here. he runs a studio and gallery in amarillo that i have yet to visit but hope to someday soon. amarillo is about 4 hours away and not even halfway across the state. sometimes i think texas is just too big.

in other news i'm toying with the idea of hosting a kiln building workshop next spring/early summer. i'm going to build a larger version of my kiln nearer to the studio, the current one is about 150 yards away which doesn't sound far but try carrying kiln loads of pots back and forth all the time. i thought it might be a great educational experience for anyone interested in woodfiring. so if anyone has an opinion or is genuinely interested let me know.

there are new willem gebben pots at earth and fire gallery. he's brilliant.

check out alex matisse's blog, maybe drop a little encouragement. they just had a doozy of a firing.

email ron and tell him to get on with his minnesota story, he's killin me.

so long.