Great pots! And plates!

We went out to the kiln last night to unload. This is really exciting, it's the one time you get to see the pieces that other people made, and it gives you a sense of what is possible in wood firing. The firing went really well (as mentioned), and our stuff turned out really great. With luck I'll share some photos soon, but a quick summary, I spent the first couple weeks making plates and casserole dishes- which turned out great. I found it is easier for me to improve if I just focus on one form at a time Of course, none of the plates are the same size- I have pyramid shaped stacks with plates from 13 inches to 6- but that just means you can decide exactly how much food you want and it can look just right on your plate.

The casseroles are pretty cool- I'm not sure why it took such a long time to decide to make these shapes (perhaps because lots of my earlier stuff leaked, but I think we solved that), but I am really happy with them. Now I wish I'd thought more about making standard sizes- but really I just want to bake something cheesy in them.

Later in the class I started throwing taller shapes- so lots of tall (ish) skinny (ish) vases. Awesome! The kiln was REALLY full, so by the time we arrived late Friday, we were making major efforts to stack things. Having shells (from Alaska!) meant we could stack pieces together and break them apart later, because the shell degrades into a salty skeleton of it's former self. Although- it turns out the the blue mussel shells vitrify, rather than disolve. In some cases, this is cool- but in other cases, the result is, well... I have a casserole dish that I stacked another piece across the top of- now it has 4 perpendicular glass daggers hanging off the lip. But I'm being dramatic- I'll just grind the sharp edges down and it will also make delicious cheesy things.

As we were packing up, and feeling good about ourselves, our teacher came around to ask if we were happy with out things came out. For me, I felt like this was one of my best yet- I didn't make much that I wasn't really happy with, and nothing really got ruined- so I felt like I had a good haul. And then he asked me what I was going to do when I moved away- how would I get by without the studio time? I was taken aback. I actually really worry about finding another studio that is as supportive and open as the Union Project. I can't imagine any private artist wanting to open their doors to me, or other wood kiln people wanting to make space for my lumpy pots. Hopefully there will be spaces for that in the future, but throwing pots has been one of my favorite new things to do since I came to graduate school, and I hope it isn't just a passing phase. My teacher said he wasn't sure if there were places like this in other cities, but he was pretty sure I was capable enough to help out with another wood kiln somewhere else. That was a relief. But I am still in denial about whether that may have been final trip to the kiln, or my final class at the UP.

Manuscript #2 submitted!

Not much really changes in my daily routine, which I recognize is getting a bit repetitive. But this week, breakthrough! My collaborators submitted manuscript #2- and I am the first author! There has been a lot of back and forth to get this story together, which draws heavily on the distinct expertise of 3 different labs. The bumps in the road will hopefully pay off when the Journal of Biomolecular Screening reviews is and LOVEs it.

Actually, I am not really holding out hope that this will be different than manuscript #1- I expect to get it back in another month and we'll make up our minds about what else to do to it. Weird though it seems, this is still what progress looks like.

The dissertation continues too. 140 pages, 269 references. I doubt the final product will be more than 200 pages, I feel like most of it has been committed to paper by now. I continue to feel intermittently very clever and very foolish about the experiments we've done and the results we've gotten. 57 days left until my defense... I gave Dr. Boss the first draft of a chapter- we'll see if I am as close to on track as I feel.

In other news, we fired the wood kiln over the weekend. This was WAY less work because there were twice the people we usually have around. This also means there was WAY more food too- double awesome. The weather was great too. The firing went very quickly, and we got home quite early on Sunday. We crack it open Wednesday- I'm excited to see what we get. I made LOTS of plates this time, and baking dishes. Both are relatively new forms for me, with luck they look great. No pictures this time, I guess it is starting to feel pretty routine. Our teacher was a little ill, so we kept sending him away to sleep while we took charge of things. It's nice to know what you are doing.

Success at the kiln!

We cracked open the kiln last night- the only major casualty was a off center bowl I shattered with a log- a fair sacrifice. A lot of stuff turned out really nice, I tried some new things this time, making "tiles," using plaster molds, hand building with "spring cut slabs" (this requires a picture, but it turned out pretty great) and not glazing everything. Some of the unglazed stuff looks great! Also some of it looks just mediocre. I think I am partial to the glazed look, but it is amazing what plain old ash and reduction can do.

I brought in the first round of very extraneous pieces today to share at work. I had 4 boxes of modest size to bring home, so I brought the smallest box of pieces I could part with in. Actually, we do have plenty of bowls at my hour already. I picked and attractive mug and walked it up to Dr. Rockstar, who I imagined would politely accept my childish looking craft. He was actually really thrilled that I would think of him. Which is weird, considering I think of him in almost everything I do, as in- would this be good enough for Dr. Rockstar?

My in-laws are coming tomorrow for a long weekend. I hope they've enjoyed their train trip and are energetic enough to see a bit of the city while they are here. I'll be photographically in debt to the blog by mid next week, so I'll endeavor to get that under control asap.

Another amazing fire

The forecast for the weekend was cold, snow, possible rain, and more cold. This is why I was committed to doing my part to add to global warming- Matt and I spent the weekend at the Laurelville Mennonite Church Center, firing the wood kiln. But first off- let me show you how awesome all the stuff the THREE of us made for this class. Amazing volumes, right?


All that is hand packed into the kiln- it takes most of a day- more than a normal work day for sure, to carefully balance each piece on 'wadding'- clay mixed with sand and wood chips that becomes unstable after the firing, but keeps all the pieces from melting to the surface of the shelves.



We lit the fire at 7- this is the earliest we've lit it, EVER, and a couple hours really seemed to help. Once the kiln was going, we could focus on the business of making wood fired pizzas. Oh yeah.

We share the load in 8 hour shifts, mine were both midday- my coworker Sarah went from 8pm-4am (I did that before- it is tiring), and Swarna did from 4am-noon. I tried to be helpful and stack wood or gives breaks whenever I was awake, since I had the easiest time. During my shift on Saturday, I moved the temp from 800 F to 1700 F- so I was pretty much feeling awesome. My friend J even came out to see what all the fuss was about! But my camera started acting up- so I don't have any more pictures. Frown.


By 7am Sunday, the kiln was up to the temp (2100 F) it needed to be help at for a couple hours (Thank you, Weather!), so my shift was rather abbreviated. We did actually help seal up the kiln this time. This involves slowing the rate we feed the kiln, then choking out the air intakes and sealing the cracks with more wadding. The bravery and skill required to 'mortar' the kind of crack that has 2150 degree flames shooting out of it we left to our teacher. I just dropped the last piece of wood. We seal it up, and let it happily melt the remaining ash into glass while it cools. We'll unseal it on Thursday, and see what we get. There are other photos posted here, but these are quite similar to similar albums of the past.

My Turn! Much has happened!

While Noel has been blogging the 12 days of Europe, I've been not blogging. More like, I've been too busy to need to interject into Noel's narrative, but now so many things have come and gone, I'm just going to jump in an share, and then we can get back to the exciting Noel stories.

WISC: We had a potluck/planning meeting. I'd had to postpone this one week to improve attendance, but we've decided on a new format (hostess' choice), and mapped out a calender for the months to come. Success! All this the day before we left for the...

Wood Fire Kiln: My ceramics class came to an end as we took our pots out to the kiln to fire them. The firing was fun, we had a good group (including Joe, our teacher,'s parents- who came bearing cookies), and saw a lot of wildlife. I had the 4am-noon shifts both days, which I managed with my partner- Matt hung around splitting wood. Besides the snakes, baby robins and other birds, we rescued a pair of unweaned kittens we found beneath the wood pile. Rescued them to the Animal Rescue League that is, although both Matt and I felt a bit emotional about letting them go. I am pleased with how this batch of ceramics came out- I must have learned a lot about what to expect from last time. (The matching cups in the photo were Joe's- he's made 250 as favors for his wedding. Yeah.) We unloaded 72hrs after we stopped firing (the ceramics were still warm!) (Not hot, Mom), to have time before we left for...

Kelsey's Graduation! (and visiting in-laws!)- 3 for 3- and none of them moved back home (yet... for long). Mom and Dad and successful empty nesters! While the stated purpose was to see Kelsey graduate (BA in Communications- Nice work!), we actually got to hang out with Noel and Jessie and Matt's Dad and step-mom a lot. While not eating awesome food (in Saulsalito, or Lagunitas Brewery, Ghiradelli Square or home cooked by my favorite greek chef), we took in the Golden Gate Bridge, stopped at the Ferry Terminal Market, rode street cars and trolley's in San Fransisco and got to spend time with the family. Although we had some delays on the way home, we did arrive in time for...

Waz's Defense! Matt's BFF here is a grad student in my program, who will now be known to all of us a Doc Zonk. Well, me at least. He gave a great seminar, was articulate and poised with his committee, and now has finished his career as a grad student. We were really excited to celebrate with him and his family, but I'll admit I'm feeling a bit melancholy knowing this is just once step closer to the impending move to Virginia.

That pretty well settles the running score. It is officially sticky summer here, so we are camped out inside next to the AC for a few months. Matt just heroically swapped out a pinch flat on the car (lucky a few blocks from home), while I cooked some eggs that I am hoping pass for dinner. After two solid weeks out of the house, I've got some catch up work to do on the homemaking front. I think I'll start with laundry...

With three days to spare...

I have this image of myself as fairly with it, not a serial procrastinator, I like dispensing with my obligations as soon as I can. I am also financially savvy enough to know it is easier to pay your bills on time and not get in trouble with anyone than to make magic pennies on the last hour of interest accrued. My feeling is that if you don't get a tax refund you've done something wrong. Keep this in mind when I tell you that our mid-March project got pushed back a bit due to unforeseen circumstances (and a dose of sloth).

A pit in my stomach reminded me that we had yet to file our 2009 taxes, and that the window was closing fast. Fortunately, my dear husband was able to feed Turbo Tax while I was in ceramics class, but he stopped short of actually filing. Why? Because the amount of money we owed AGAIN this year was too much for him to part with without a moment of silence. Unfortunately, my HR department refuses to give me any information that might be misconstrued as advice, and his HR department seems to to think he should be square, so it is unclear how we have arrived at such a clear discrepancy. *grumble grumble* But, it is in and filed, and I don't want to think about it for another 12 months (even though I really ought to sort out how Uncle Sam let me borrow a whole extra paycheck for the year).

In other news, I am back to ceramics! This is going to be another wood firing class, but mostly I am just happy to be throwing pots again. It is nice to play with something you can mess up, or do really awesome at and feel equally good about. I have another 5 weeks to make stuff to take to the kiln in May, so if anyone has requests for sturdy ceramics that will be done over in an earthy ash glaze, let me know! (I could point you to pictures if that would help)

Feeding the inferno, and other things I couldn't do without Matt

<-- Just a pizza, but more like how I imagined the firing might go. We survived the wood firing, which I hope by the end of the post you'll appreciate as a righteous achievement. I went to the laurel highlands to participate in firing this kiln as the culminating event in my Wood-Fired Ceramics class (a generous birthday gift from Mom and Dad!). My teacher Joe, had described the process as 'you know, the kiln has to be loaded, and there is a lot of smoke and ash that transforms into glaze and it takes a long time and then later we can unload it. Oh, we can camp and there is pizza oven.' This description somehow failed to convey the sheer amount of labor, heat and vertical shooting FLAMES that would be involved. Really, I should have put that together on my own- Normal glazes melt at just under 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and to deposit enough ash that could be transformed into a glass that would melt evenly on the surfaces, that has to get to 2,300 degrees. And sit there for hours.

The whole process is transformative. A dusty shed at the edge of retreat center is filled with shelves, pots and wood, sealed shut and becomes a kiln. The pots turns from earthware to ceramics, the logs turn to ash which becomes a colored glass. For myself, I rebuilt my definitions of 'uncomfortably hot,' 'dangerously hot,' and 'hot as summer in hell.' But with Matt there and my classmates/coworkers to cheer me on, I suited up and conquered the flames. We won't see the pay off for all this hard work until next weekend

I was nervous going in to my first shift- the kiln had been cooking for a full day, and I was handed the gloves at 8pm Saturday night with the temperature at ~1,600 degrees. Joe hoped it would get to 2,000 by lunch, and Matt and I had the reins until 4am. I'd been watching my coworkers, so I knew what to do and had safety gear to do it in, but pulling the lid off a blazing inferno brings out a really instinctual response (RUN AWAY) that seemed impossible to overcome. Within the first hour though, I was doing it all. Opening the door to reveal the blaze, counting the cones of glass that would melt as the temperature increased, piling in wood until flames poured out the chimney, the pressure holes in the ceiling and finally the door itself until I slammed the inadequate-seeming pillow of fiberglass back over the hole. In this blazing atmosphere, you can smell the oxygen burning out of the iron, a smell that accompanies thick black clouds of burnt metal. Matt and I took turns feeding the fire and passing the wood, and Matt killed time by splitting logs and raking coals. As scared as I was to be in charge of this monster until 4am, I was so much more brave to have Matt there with me, whose welding experience gave him an edge at things like battering a coal bed flat with an iron rod, and raking coals until the iron rod turned red hot (eta:30 sec). With his support in tending, we got the fire to 1900 degrees by 4am. We saluted the next shift by shooting flames out the chimney and slept a few hours.

We took over again with more help the next day at noon. The temp was up to 2050, and we wanted it to get just a bit hotter and stay there over the day. We worked the first until about 6, and then left the kiln in the careful hands of Joe to tend for another day or so. When it is done, he'll seal up all the intake, choking out the flame and giving the pots a chance to cool slowly. We'll be back next weekend to unseal the door (we closed gaps with raw clay, which was baked into submission over the weekend) and unload the kiln. I can't imagine what we'll see- pots fused together by overzealous ashing, pots shattered by inarticulate wood tossing? we nearly destroyed the door on several occasions by shifting bricks out of place so severely they had to be banged back with a mallet-, but I hope some things come out well. Just as Joe described though, we made a lot of pizza, the camping was quite glamorous and it was a lot of fun. Fabulous! More pictures, here!

Ceramics AND San Fransisco

We spent the weekend in the San Fransisco bay area visiting Matt's folks. THIS WAS AWESOME! We spent a day wine tasting in the Napa Valley- including Champagne tasting at the Mumm winery, because we are glamorous people. Then we spent two days on the world renouned M/V Delphini, the Seguin's charming yacht. We left from home port heading towards San Fransisco, where we pulled up to the pier to jump out and grab a few extra things for our sea side picninc and we headed to the Belvadere for the night- the pictures of sprawling cliffside mansions are from here. In the morning we headed out the gate- the Golden Gate that is. On the way out we saw harbor seals and jillions of dolphins! We took in the open seas before heading in to Sausalito, too charming for words! At the end of the night we bunked the boat at in Benecia and took in three different cities worth of fireworks. Beautiful.

It was really fun to hang around with Matt's Dad and step-Mom. We haven't spent much time with them, and it is very revealing to see someone I thought I knew so well with his family. I knew that Matt would love to see the boat guts and hear about all the work done to keep up the boat, but it was fun to see him jump out onto the peir to tie knots, and hear stories from when he was a kid. It was a great trip, lovely company, incredible hospitality and a well needed break for both of us. I've posted an album of photos, even once I trimmed down to shots where the people look good, the scenery is fantastic and the composition isn't appalling (yes, a work in progress) there are a LOT of pictures, of things like the OUTSIDE of the Golden gate bridge and views of the city from various vantages.

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in other news-My Summer ceramics class is over. I was prolific! and made several things I am pretty pleased with. I tried some new things- hand building, and building hands. I also made several vases that may be more functional previous iterations, and I like the colors quite a lot. Again, if anything so much as strikes your fancy, let me know because, as is apparent from the photos, we now have ceramics on every surface in our home. And apparently Matt wanted space for some of his stuff too... Check it out

Raoul is grounded, again

I finally won the stare down with the cat. He was sitting, lazing even, on the dining room table until I (shouting and flailing like a not very effective, but still superior, predator) rushed him on the table and dropped him on the floor. And then we had a stare down. Now El Gato keeps following me around trying to make nice- fat chance, buddy. Not if you keep sneaking back onto the table under the cover of Matt's clean shirts.

While I am on the topic of how absurd my cat is, you have to hear about the 'snack' he made himself the other night. You may know that Raoul drinks out of a kitty fountain- this is mostly because he is spoiled, but partly because we thought his showers might be a sign of mortal dehydration. Sometimes Raoul drags his toys and treasures through it, before dredging them in cat food. I suspect this is to make them more disgusting when you go to fish your hair ties back out of his food, but perhaps not always. On this other morning, when we got up we found his fountain pouring something tea colored onto his little catnip pillow. He was preparing catnip sun-tea!

Micro-news: Friday is the homebrew bash- there isn't really enough beer to make it a Homebrew-only bash, but the entire department will turn out to socialize regardless. I am abysmally unprepared for this 5K Saturday, but I did walk to work this morning. I signed up for another semester of Ceramics, to start in April. If you are hoping for an upgrade- start breaking the old stuff now. Our soldier friend will remain in the states for at least a month before he is sent off to combat- hooray! My undergrad was awarded a summer fellowship to continue his research with me, which makes us both feel good. Matt and I are both dreading changes to our workspace- me to a smaller lab, him to a non-cubicle 'workspace.' No date set yet for either.

That, and I have the most ridiculous cat ever. Stay tuned!

Fall Ceramics!

I've put together an album of my latest Pottery creations. You'll all be seeing some of these again in some form, so don't look to close if you like surprises under the Xmas tree. Overall I am much happier with what I produced this semester, form and function and color. Not sure that these images will do the glazes justice, but take a look and let me know what you think. As I keep hinting, lots of these (as many as possible, so I can justify the next semester) are going to be gifted. If anything looks remotely appealing, just dibs it.

E. Normous Bowls

I may have mentioned that I signed up for a second Semester of Ceramics. I have made a LOT of stuff so far this semester, some of which I am really pleased with. This actually makes me a little self-conscious about glazing them because I still want them to look nice when I am done.

This week, we got back some bisque fired pieces (terra cotta like, now it is ready to glaze), and I got to look at some other things then came out of the kiln. Someone had made these REALLY huge bowls. It got me thinking, when I started, I thought if I wanted make just one giant bowl, but that turned out to be an unrealistic goal. Now, however, enough of my pieces are coming out how I want them now, and we are going to be hard pressed to find enough places for all the vases I made, why not spend some time on something that might be a complete failure- nothing wasted, right?

So I asked Joe, the teacher, how to go about it. He said, just start with a lot of clay, and be patient. I pulled out a 20 lb lump of clay and tried it. It was hard to work with, and the scale of it means it is very thick, but I made what will be a very serviceable centerpiece.

And then I made another.

I made two E. Norm. Ous Bowls that I am very proud of (we'll see if this holds up next week when I see them again). It feels like I've really conquered something- I went form being completely clay-tarded to making something very functional and potentially attractive, without ever getting so frustrated I hate it. It's been a good exercise in learning how to learn with grace.

More ceramics!

I've updated the album with the final set of things from my ceramics class over the summer.

Find those here!

Take a look around, and tell me what you think. I'll be sending off small 'sturdy' bowls to anyone with any remote interest. In fact you might not even have to ask- but if anything catches your eye please let me know.

Also, if anyone has any modest requests (condiment bowls, mugs), I'd be glad to entertain them. My goal for this semester is to make more things on purpose, which means I need purposes.

Ceramics- First Fire

After a long wait, pictures of some of my ceramics pieces are up! Here they are all together for scale- the peaches are small, and the butter enormous. Except for the plates, everything is pretty much ideal for beer nuts or similar scale. An online album is here, and I'll update it as I get a few more things this week.

And doesn't this blog need more photos?

Ceramics- The comedy continues

Another week at ceramics, and Sarah and I decided we would leave work a few minutes early so we would have enough time to enjoy our egg sandwiches at the cafe. In sharp contrast to every other week, we caught a bus in minutes, it wasn't over crowed and we arrived at the Union Project almost and hour before class started. Too bad the cafe was closed. We ended up buying cereal and milk at the drug store across the street and eating it with a fork I carry in my bag on the lawn.

After 4 weeks, we've hypothetically 'mastered' mugs, bowls and now plates, and are carving little feet onto their bases. Plates I think I may get a handle on; big flat piece of clay is how most of my attempts turn out eventually. However, intentionally making plates seems to be more of a gauntlet than our previous work. Fingers being so close to the spinning wheel ground down my finger nails, shaved my knuckles and actually sliced my thumb. But I am confident I can get my money's worth out of plates, platters and trays, especially since I don't think lids are going to work out for me.

Ceramics Class

Wednesday nights are my ceramics class at the Union Project. I signed up for this 10 week class on a whim with Sarah (from the zoo adventure), and it turned out to be a great idea. We both decided it would be cheaper to make pottery than buy it, but I think I may have been wrong. I will need several more semesters before I make anything actually attractive (spoiler: you are all getting lumpy pencil holders and cocktail peanuts bowls for Xmas), but it is really fun.

Fortunately, Sarah and I both suck at this. Our teacher has a very forgiving eye: he thinks since we want it to look handmade, so the imperfections give it character. My pieces tend to have more character than they can hold. Each night I come home with clay that has dripped down my elbows stuck to my pants, smeared on my shirt and splashed in my hair. My attitude about this is similar to learning new assays at work: I have to try to make every mistake once before I can get it right. I haven't yet thrown a perfect anything. Tonight we learned how to make handles- which just adds another dimension to go wrong. I could probably spend 10 weeks practicing the cylinder we did the first night and still be laughing at the explosion of clay during our last week.

If anything makes it out of the oven without exploding, I might post pictures. But if I don't, don't ask.