Monday, November 28, 2011

Getting Loaded


SEA holiday Show on Friday! Here is a thing I am remembering about art fairs: there's no calling in sick. Got the flu? Too bad. Migraine? Suck it up! Luckily I have neither flu nor migraine, just a bad cold. My nose and lungs are congested and I ache all over; the only time I feel well is lying in a hot bath, but minutes after I get out I am achy and stuffed up again. But the firing must go on, so I got about three-quarters loaded yesterday (hehe, no, not like that, although that is a thing to consider: I've heard that alcohol kills germs.) I had to stop when I ran out of wadding, and then remembered that I had used the last of of alumina making door mud. D'oh! I can make wadding without kaolin: kyanite will serve. I can make wadding without grog: sawdust (or oat bran, right, Sue?) will work just fine. I cannot make wadding without alumina. So I crawled off to bed with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and a hot cup of spiced cider, and made a plan to visit Watershed first thing this morning.

All of which means I will be firing overnight tonight. Oh joy. But I keep doing it to myself (well: I've done it twice) so I can't really complain.Maybe I'm getting something out of it, a feeling of being Really Committed, or something. Or just that I should really BE committed, to an asylum.

Anyway: I am pleased with the look of this load. Can't wait to see them finished; that will make all this snot-slinging worthwhile.

(And don't worry about contagion! 2400F will kill any virus on the planet. )

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Lori,
It does look like a great load! Sorry to hear you are sniffling,blowing, hacking, and feeling all over crappy
:(

You DO get bonus points for pushing forward!! Hang in there~
Kathy

June Perry said...

Alumina in door mud is a bit pricey. Mix up some cheap fire clay with some grog or sawdust.