Trees are back

Hi from Black Mountain Center for the Arts clay studio...

Well, this little tree creature looks like a kid with some real problems with his hands.  But those are roots around the bottom.

And I put trees on the sides of 4 mugs today...which are waiting for the next glaze firing...mmm, after the one that's already been loaded and not started yet, so I'm thinking some time next week.  Today a bisque kiln was going.  We may have 2 kilns, but due to the heat in the kiln room, it's not a good idea to try to fire them both at the same time.  And since students want to put their wares in there, we need it to be around 100 degrees or less when we go in to do so...and it's usually bearable.

Anyway, you can just trust me, I've made more trees with heads and other kinds of fun personifications.  Several are going to be offered for a raku firing in a couple of weeks...we will see which ones fit in that little kiln.  I am hoping that they will come through ok.  Another thing that I hope to take some pictures during.

Our dear friend (I was going to say old friend, but it sound like I mean she's old) Maureen Joyce is coming back for a visit and will teach a workshop, and assist Geoff Bird with a separate raku workshop.  The first workshop Maureen will teach will be her way of forming faces on thrown pots.  She's become quite adept at this technique.

I'm also trying to catch up with an order, but it's just falling in those in-between-kiln-loading times.

And I'm sure you have heard that tonight, June 30, there will be an extra second added to our time.  It's something to do with adjusting our (people's) time to match the solar/earth/moon time.  Apparently the earth's orbit, the pull of the moon and sun, mean that we have an extra second coming to us, much like leap year catches us up with the extra fourth of a day that happens each time the earth goes around the sun.

So what are you going to do with your extra second?