mud madness

*With apologies going out to Mr. Baker for the desecration of the sun porch. It looks fine now and we've got the splash pan set up properly for next time.

One of the founding members of the guild needed a temporary home for her old school (but motorized) "Wrangler", as the wheel has been dubbed, and was kind enough to offer it to us. I spent the afternoon doing some wheel coaching with the family. The girls each got a bowl out of it and are looking forward to trimming them. It was fun to introduce them to my obsession but I'm secretly hoping nobody else loves it as much as I do, I'm selfish with my wheel time!









Thanks to Jeremy for taking the photos...none of him on the wheel but I'll get some one of these days.

I don't even know what to say to that

I took the kids to the big city today (that would be Kelowna to us country bumpkins) so I went a little crazy and wore my hair down, put on hoop earrings and a little bit of makeup. I got the stare down and 3rd degree from Ivy. Turns out that when I do things like that I look like I'm trying to be the same as all the other moms out there which is boring and conformist.

Princeton tournament

Here's the hockey team I play on, in all our post-tournament victory glory. I'm pretty sure we were laughing and not in severe pain, as some expressions may imply. One tournament left on Easter weekend before we retire the gear for the summer.

raku

Last weekend I had a chance to participate in my first raku firing where we use the reduction process. It was the kind of event where it feels like a party, you get to play with fire and ideally get something cool out of the deal. It was sunny, plenty of coffee was consumed and we enjoyed pizza for lunch. And possibly some cold beverages were involved.



(this vase is NOT mine but was one of the better pictures...will post mine if I remember to take photos in daylight).


The temperature of the kiln when pieces come out is about 1800 F which requires good nerves and steady hands. The items are in the kiln until the glaze is molten, then when they are taken out we place them in the garbage cans that are lined with newspaper (in this case). The paper ignites almost immediately and the flames draw the oxides out of the glazes, causing what's called a reduction. The lid is closed before the fire burns down so that the pieces don't have a chance to re-oxidize. They are opened about 20 minutes later when they are significantly cooler. The water spraying cools them rapidly down to air temperature so once again, they don't have a chance to re-oxidize (which would change the colours significantly). At least that's the way I understand the process so far. Feel free to research...

slow posting

Not much to report that is out of the ordinary and warrants a post. Still enjoying home schooling and pottery when I can get there. I occasionally read when the house is quiet in the evenings and am limiting screen time to a certain degree. Life is good, I like the routines we're in. We've even seen the sun twice this week and that's good for the soul.

I have a few books out from the library that I believe I may have commented on before but the search on my blog stinks and I don't have the gusto to dig through it. The theory I had was that if I'd blog about them I'd be able to find them again someday...hmm. Better tags would help.

"Food Not Lawns" by Heather C. Flores. Pretty self-explanatory. There's a whole network that been developed along with it and encourages doing the activism thing in your own home town. It's something I'm passionate about but need to either start small or stop being afraid of hard work and/or failure.

"Superbia - 31 ways to create sustainable neighbourhoods", Dan Chiras and Dave Wann. I've read it before and get a kick out of their scathing opinion of suburbia. What I like even more is that they try to come up with ideas to make it more functional. Similar vibe to Food Not Lawns.

"Off the Grid Homes: Case Studies for Sustainable Living" by Lori Ryker. Beautiful, carefully crafted homes that incorporate alternative energy ideas and smart design. It's generally as lame as all the other pretty books showcasing executive-priced homes well in excess of 2000 sq. ft that claim somehow to be the paragon of "sustainability". There are neat ideas but if you have a budget and want to build small it would be a discouraging.

the theme

The pottery glaze seems to be going with a theme here. I've done a lot of experimenting but few results are as pleasing right now as the "tried & true".

the real seasons

The Okanagan First Peoples Sylix calendar of seasons. I love this one because it represents the local ecosystem. "Fall" can't possibly cover the range of experiences we have between September and November but I know the difference between the time of salmon spawning and the time of cold weather!

hmm, it's not displaying properly...will try to fix that at some point. Maybe. Click on the link to see the whole thing for now.