I will be showing a few pieces at this week’s First Friday Art Walk, at the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) storefront, 116 W Cottage, Flagstaff, located in the southwest corner of the Beaver St Brewery Parking lot.

The CSA is a fantastic program! I have been a member for years and look forward to my farm share each week, all winter long. We’re going to have food, music and entertainment for the Art Walk - plus, CSA volunteers will be serving homemade goodies at several downtown galleries. Try them all and let us know what you liked best!

From the CSA website:

Flagstaff Community Supported Agriculture’s Housewarming feast of food, art, music and more will be celebrating at 116 W Cottage Ave. for First Friday Art Walk May 7 from 6-9pm. Fill your souls and your bellies as we share a collage of art and yummy recipes from our own CSA shareholders, Flying M Ranch, Cottage Place, Satchmo’s and Local Alternative Inc. Sample locally brewed Kolsch Bier, Doña Ella Stout and Ginger ale by Matt Oldham and homemade lemonade made with fresh ingredients from Arizona. Come south of the tracks where Anna Ramsey will be painting faces with her creative and unique style. Sambatuque, Acoustic Soup and Eli and Scott Katz will be entertaining our ears.

Fired the kiln yesterday and got a few nice pieces. I am still having issues with temperature variations with this kiln. Researching the problem helped me realize that many people who fire this Olympic 2327g kiln have the same problems as I do - too cool at the top when the bottom reaches temp. One of these days, this kiln will be for bisque only, and the temperature variation won’t be quite as important as with a glaze firing. Many items that were in this firing will need to go through another to get a better maturity on the glazes.

Here are a few pieces that came out OK:

Medium Salad Bowl	Large Dip Bowl
Plant Pot and Tray	Soap Dishes

I suppose these results are OK considering I haven’t fired the kiln in months. I am going to get intimately familiar with my materials and tools again this year. It has been too many, many months of dabbling about here and there. I am ready to try out all of the things I have in my head, and to deveop a body of work that I can consistently produce. I need to get my whimsy back.

I’m getting ready to load the kiln for a Saturday firing. Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather cooperates. The cone packs are set up and the cart is loaded. Now I just need to get out there and load ‘er up!

Cone packs

I’m recycling clay today. I recycle all of my trim scraps, as well as any clay that gets too dry to work with. I put it into a bucket and let it sit until bone dry. That doesn’t take long in the arid climate of northern Arizona. Here you can see a bucket of dry scraps, and some small slabs drying on the table for future recycling.

Once dry, I cover the scraps with water and let it sit for a day or two. Then, I mix it up in the bucket - it stays lumpy - then transfer small amounts to the blender, where I mix it until it is a slurry (slip). Doing it this way ensures an even mix. I mix clay bodies when I recycle and this technique blends them well.

When mixing is done, the slip is poured into a plaster bowl. The plaster pulls the extra moisture out and leaves a workable piece of clay. This batch should be ready to be worked tomorrow. Happy clay!

Last week, we were hit by what weather people are fondly referring to as the “Western Wallop” - a week long series of snow storms that dropped over 50 inches of snow! I cleared a couple feet of snow off the roof of the kiln house - twice!

The snow gave me some time to work in the studio. I’m getting the feel for the wheel again… it’s like riding a bike (thankfully). I started out with mugs because I wanted to break my body back in gently. No sense in tweaking my back when I’m just getting back into it.

I also did a few slab soap dishes - see the new fish stamps? I got the stamps at NCECA last spring, but this is the first time I’ve used them. I’m going to be doing a lot of fish-themed work in upcoming months.

So many ideas spinnin’ in my head…