morgaina | coulda been better, but mostly good

Today was my third Modern pottery display/sale in as many weeks. Sales at the first were alright, but the second and third had poor sales. I still enjoyed myself at all of them because of sharing the time with other potters and lots of potter geek talk. Today the sale was held at the Wendts’ studio and as well as talk and eat the great refreshments we brought Michael encourages us to use any of his equipment. So I got about 15 things thrown as well as talk and eat. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Michael is developing a new clay, he sends it through a vacuum pug mill the style of which he invented and built himself. This clay is of local materials: Moose Creek feldspar and Helmer kaolin, plus the other necessary ingredients. It is a translucent porcelain and he believes it will be useful for *either* cone 10 or cone 6 (!!!), with only a few modifications. He is encouraging those of us who fire at ^6 to experiment with it. It throws beautifully, very plastic. I am also interested to see how it carves and if my glazes will fit it. COE and all that.

It was also interesting to see how far the big wind storm had traveled, even east of Lewiston, ID. There were signs of trees that had fallen across the highway that had been sawed up and moved. Due to the new highway going in I realized I considered the few trees left along my route my friends and it was sad to see so many with severely broken limbs or completely downed.

Addendum: As I consider it, I won't be able to modify Michael's clay body for SCA cookware, he took all the sand out. For the same reason it probably will not be useful for pitfiring, but I will experiment with it to see for sure.
Also, another friend, Judith, told me about a heater she uses to keep her studio from freezing even in the mountains where she lives. Her studio is tighter than mine, but it's worth a try.