Shelves

Okay, so I'm trying to decide about shelving.  This particular kind has been suggested.  Potter friends, which of these Alera shelves from Sam's Club with wheels at the bottom do you recommend?  The first one with the wheels is on sale.

Dreams

It's been a long week and well, it's been a long month.  And I haven't been at the wheel.  Spent a week in Costa Rica and have been working more than ever as long as I can remember.  This priest work is so exhausting sometimes.
Life is too short for such.  Yet I'm thankful for work.
One of the losses is not taking the time to be at the wheel.  It's good that I'm still dreaming about a lot of things.
Too many to write here.
I can say that I will be at the wheel tomorrow.  :)
And these pieces and reading your blog posts invite me to keep at this pottery thing (which I love), and find a way somehow to make time for it.
And, as I said, life is too short not to.
Lately, I've been thinking about dreams.  On the jar above (cone 10, phoenix clay, reduction) is the quote by Langston Hughes:  "Hold fast to dreams for life without dreams is like a bird with a broken wing that cannot fly."  It's one of my favorite pieces.  It's never going anywhere and neither are the other two pictured in this post.

 Here's another dream piece.  It has words from a song written and recorded by Peter Mayer (lead guitarist for Jimmy Buffett).  It's cone 6, and some Highwater earthen red clay.  I love its words.  His music is the best.

I plan to spend a good amount of time this weekend reading "Mastering Cone 6 Glazes" by Hesselberth and Roy (in dark in the back of the pic).  It is awaiting attention from me.  Just finished a delicious mushroom tofu soup--- with some noodles, soy sauce, and onions in of course, a Ron Philbeck bowl.  How I love eating out of handmade pottery!  I can't ever go back.
Hopeful about so much!  Still dreaming....
And thanks for reading, by the way...

Back.

Hard to believe, but I'm back at the wheel. This is the first piece I made. New clay (starwhite from Starworks) so that was a bit of an adjustment. It has less grog and is finer in composition. I love this picture in part in that you can see that the wheel is still brand new. Plus, this is one of the easiest forms I make.
Spent some time unloading the furniture kit, full of well, furniture for the kiln--- kiln posts of varying lengths.
Here's the wheel before I made anything. Ate a delicious gourmet soft pretzel, thanks to my parents' ongoing generosity. They make and sell these at their own business and my freezer has a bunch. Perfect way to begin time in the studio, on top of a plate with lyrics from one of Peter Mayer's songs.
Purchased 500 lbs. of clay recently. Here it is. Doesn't look like that much, but it will last for awhile. With the cold coming, it's in the washer/dryer room.
Don't have a scale to weigh the clay yet, so I guessed and formed several 1 lb. or so balls. Turned out these were big, but they're a start. Made several tea bowls; will make more later today.

So good to be back! It's been a long road these past six months. Simply having my hands in clay is heavenly!

Any ideas as to which scale to get for weighing clay?

I will get a triple beam one. Do I need another additional? Have the ohaus triple beam one picked out already.

Oh, and Tracey- I did get some incense and burnt it at the start. Perfect! Thank you.

And, it's cold today, so the space heater will come in handy. Loving this!

More to follow.

Tomorrow is the day

Finally got my wheel set up and ready. It's so CLEAN! (brand new is why) and just beautiful.
Beginning to unpack a few boxes of pottery supplies. Hard to know which banding wheel to get.

My next big purchase is metal shelves--- heard from several to get them at Sam's Club. Will check out wal-mart as Sam's Club is nowhere close. And, I'll purchase a scale online somewhere to weigh clay.
Tracey Broome, you are brilliant! This is the space heater I ended up buying from Lowe's. It was priced $35 and then they sold me this one, the display one for $20. It really does set out a bunch of heat...and I will pull it away from anything before turning it on. Thank you a bunch, Tracey for that wisdom!
I cannot put into words how tough it has been to be away from the wheel for 6 mos. Part of me has been missing. Tomorrow, I"ll put my hands into the first of 500 lbs. of clay, wedge it, and begin to make some like these. Thankfully, one doesn't forget how to make something at the wheel, although I expect it will take awhile to get back into it. While it'll be awhile till I fire something in the kiln (I travel to Costa Rica for a week soon), I keep telling myself that this will take time. At least I can make a bunch of pieces and just line them up trimmed and all, getting them ready for a bisque firing.

Off to find a scale to weigh clay and a metal shelving unit. Thanks for all the support and suggestions!