Ka-BOOM! And other interesting pottery events...

Yesterday, Ruth went to Clarkesville with me to ride Bonnie's horses. While they were down at the paddock with the horses, I was sitting at my wheel, trying out the new clay and listening to the whine of the kiln as it was climbing in temps for a bisque. Suddenly, I heard a tremendous KA-BOOM, from inside the kiln. UH OH! Bonnie's skittish little poodle ran out of the garage and sat looking daggers at me, like I was frightening her. Poor puppy. I got up, washed off my hands and headed down to have a chat with Bonnie. We decided to turn off the kiln and cool it, and see what broke. An hour later, we found the culprit...the largest pitcher from last week had totally exploded. Good thing we turned it off, because it had spewed shards all over everything...including a glazed pot we would have hated to have lost. We got it all cleaned up, and repacked and turned back on. Our diagnosis was that the base of the pitcher was still damp. Wet clay and hot kiln can be explosive...

The new clay was interesting. We both had a hard time deciding whether we liked it. At first anyway. We worked through 50# of it though..which is pretty unheard of for us. I got two large pitchers done, another large casserole, a few goblets, and one of my three commissions. I lost a few pieces during the day as well, but I chalked that up to learning to relate to the properties of the new clay. Once we find a clay that we really like, we will stick with it, but for now it is fun to experiment, hoping to find that clay that just 'clicks'.

In other news, I had a meeting at the school with the other subs yesterday morning. I really liked what the assistant principal had to say. They seem to be VERY supportive of their subs, and serious about it. Not at all like last year when I felt like I was thrown in with a sink or swim attitude...and if I was being pulled down by disruptive kids, it was my own fault. I am scheduled to sub for the art teacher next week, so I am looking forward to getting in there and seeing what it is like. The assistant principal may come and observe, so I hope I do well! :)