See I haven't abandoned you blogosphere.

Okay so it's been a while I admit it.  But I haven't been twiddling my thumbs I swear, you can even ask my thumbs.  I was contacted by St. Stanislaus to create a series of trophies for their invitational regatta (sailing competition for landlubbers)  and I said yes.  How could I say no, the guy who asked is a coworker and keeps my technical issues to a minimum at school and i don't want to not use my computer for grades.  That would be them up top.  Also have donated a work to ASC Ribbons of Change in Hattiesburg I think this makes year number 8 that I have donated to this fabulous cause, so if your a Hattiesburgian or just happen to be there or want to make a trip there October 15th would be a great night to do it.  http://www.121havenhouse.org/FlyerRoC%202011.pdf yep there be the link. and that would be kiln gods below.   Have a great one and remember clay doesn't get real hard to you get it real hot.

Giddy giddy gi...

So the kiln ran like a champ, just the way a kiln is suppose to do.  It was so awesomely nice not to have to go out and turn dials for the kiln every 2 hours give or take and even more awesome that I could tell what temperature it was with a glance at the digital readout. 

Computer controlled kilns its good for what ails ya.  Everything survived the kiln but with the starting of my real job as an art teacher this week, I haven't been able to do anything but look at the pretty pots.  However tomorrow that is all to change, I will spend the time mixing some glazes, glazing some pots and loading up my brand new to me computer controlled kiln and even get in some rakuing.  Then hopefully on Monday morning when I have to deal with kids I will have a new giant coffee mug to at least keep me semi sane. 

Till next time keep your hands muddy and burn some dirt.

Power, power and more power.

I kind of feel like Tim Allen's character on Home Improvement right now.  They came out and plugged my studio into that big electrical cord on the road and all I have to say is omg.  I have spent the last 4 years running my shop off of a 40 amp 220 volt line from my house, yes not exactly ideal especially when running my small kiln was all I could do, no wheel throwing, no welding nothing when running the kiln.  And now....hee hee, I now have 200 amp service straight to the shop..More power, ugh ugh ugh..or however you spell happy grunting sounds.

 So to test out this new power my electrician and I decided to turn the 8.0 cubic ft kiln, the small 2 cubic ft kiln, the 4 foot shop fan, all the lights and the wheel all at the same time and it ran like a dream.  Can you say AWESOME?  I can and was even chanting it. 

 Well you say what have you done with all that power?  I will tell you... nothing until 4:30 today when I finally finished loading my big kiln and turned her on.  It was so nice to just keep putting more and more pieces in there, I have gone from 8 firings to 1.  Now we get to see how long it will take for the kiln to fire and how much power it will use to figure out the power usage, which we all know equals money output, but I do believe that the electrical cost per piece should drop significantly thus increasing profit.  Yes I said profit because one day it would be nice to make my living just from my artwork.  Fingers crossed yes one day it shall happen.

That's all I have to ramble about today, no need even to think about going fishing.

And the waiting is coming to an end.

Ahh, the joys of government employees, while at lunch on Thursday I get a call from the inspector, yes the inspector I spent 2 and half days waiting on calls me to tell me he missed me Thursday morning.  Which i find odd since I was in there trimming cups.....can we call bullsh*t?  I can but didn't because I sure didn't want to give him another reason not to show up.  Alright lets get this done mr. inspector,  and he did.  YES YES YES, he showed up on Friday, and performed his inspection and we......wait for it.....wait for it.....passed.  Whew...


Hell of a build up I know, at least I think we passed, no red tags and the electrician who pulled the permit didn't get any bad news.  So on Monday I'm going to call up the power company and have them come out and tie me.  I finally get to fire some pottery soon it has been  too long.  So that's the end of the electrical saga, I hope because if it's not I'm gonna go fishing and build a gas kiln.  That's all for now kiddies I shall leave you with something to look at.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.....

Ah the joy's of waiting, wait there is no joy in waiting.  Started yesterday off with happy news the code inspector will there some time "after noon", oh yay do happy dance.  What should I wear? how should I fix my hair? oh oh the studio is a mess how will I ever get it cleaned in time with my singing, dancing, small woodland creatures taking a union authorized day off?  Well I didn't have any answers to those questions so I hauled off to do some paperwork (joy), and work on a sculpture that has been staring at me from the corner of the shop for a month (literally staring at me with six pairs of eyes, got to be kind of creepy, shivers).  And so off to work I went, always with an ear tuned to the outside for that tell tale sign of a motor meaning my wait was over.  Or was it?  After a lovely 9 hours of waiting I finally realized it was 5 o'clock, and I had been stood up.  Yes me the intrepid dirty hairy potter had been stood up...who would do such a thing, who could pass up an opportunity to bask in my presence?  Yes my ego was crushed, so I swept up the pieces, grabbed the super glue and made a collage with it, but it looked to angsty so I used it as a frisbee for the dogs.  Now I'm told to wait again.  Sigh...no way jose I go things to do, that inspector won't fool me again.  At least that's what I tell myself while I wait.
On another note here are some pictures of that sculpture.

Woo Hoo almost

Friday my electrician had a guy come over and check out the work we have done before the code check gets done, and everything checked out almost, turns out we were misinformed on the size of wire needed to go from the meter to the panel.  Curse my need for 200 amp service, but it was taken care of and hopefully the inspection will be called for on Monday and I will have new power at the shop, which would be really nice to be able to turn on the lights as soon as I walk in and be able to fire my larger pieces without the risk of transporting them 45 minutes by car.

On a note of work I will here some things that are in process so you can see that yes I am working and now blowing clay dust up your nose.

Electricity

So for about the past month and a half I have steadily been wiring up my studio.  This process actually started back in april when I being the naive potter guy went in to my local code office and asked politely for a permit so that I could put a larger kiln in my shop....That is where it all went wrong.  I was directed to zoning because they have to see if it's allowed, okay I thought just a separate meter on a separate building what could be so difficult about that?  Sigh alot apparently, seems that because I sell my work I would have to apply for a variance and that would be reviewed by the planning commission who would then decide if I would be granted the variance and what conditions yadda yadda yadda. 
Alright I thought I will do this give me the paperwork and they did, I filled it out turn it in with the required monies that they oh so love and get told the planning commission will meet in a month.  So one month of dreading what will they say who will show, will I get my variance is really not a way to spend in your own head.  I go to the meeting, and wait for 2 hours while lawyers make too much money photocopying phone books and presenting b.s. reasons for why this shed or this house would not be right for said community.   Once those 3 yes 3 cases were done I was granted my variance in 30 seconds, if you ever get the chance go to a planning commission bring some drinks and snacks it is cheap entertainment and you will gain a new hatred for lawyers.
Alright variance is set, contact the power company see if they will replace my overhead with underground and hook up the shop.  Sure says the power company guy...dum dum dum....not a problem....uh oh.  Yep I should have known when a power guy says not a problem there will be a problem.  So spend a month wiring my shop, installing two meters (one for the shop and a new one for the house)  get the guys to put the riser in place and the crew comes out to run the underground power machines a going, I step out and get "Hey You Know that this is your shell drain for you septic, this power run will tear it up and will cost you about 3 grand to repair." Sigh. okay so how do we miss that mister power guy.  Alright so overhead it will be, which requires a new investment of in materials, losing the old investment because we know everybody wants to take back a meter box that has it's knockouts knocked out.  And now down to the final time I hope.
Going to call the code office and schedule an inspection on my wiring and then the power company to tie me in...I hope it all goes well because I'm not sure I want to do this anymore just to burn dirt.

If it goes bad I'm converting those old electric kilns to gas and wood or i'm gonna go fishing.

My First Blog Be Gentle

So this is my first blog, i figured it was time to make the jump from facebook where I'm limited as to who can find me to this much larger and new to me set up.  In the following pages I shall keep you enamored, bored or entertained with stories of the life of a fledgling ceramic artist trying to make his small studio and business grow into a little bit larger small studio and business.  I will post works of mine works of fellow friends and artists and rants about this and that for it is a blog and isn't that what one is suppose to do with a blog?  Enjoy and please tell your friends to join so that they can suffer along with you.