When Your World is 4" x 4"...

Day; 229. Sunny, fairly warm, lovely December day...
Temperature on outside kiln; 48 degrees
kiln firings; bisque firing of the first 150 tiles of 300 tile commission...
Music in the studio; Patrick Lentz's Acoustic Covers, Vol;. 1-5

Long studio day today... I am not complaining, I am just happy to be able to work for a full day and not feel crummy afterwards... Maybe this lung/throat thing is finally leaving me in peace.....

I put together half dozen large serving pieces for the La Fonda Hotel Gallery and then cleaned up about 150 tiles and got them into Big Mamma Kiln for a first bisque firing. I feels really good to get a large portion  of the 4"x4" commissioned tiles on their way and into the fire. It reduces the deadline stress somewhat but it is really the glaze firing that keeps me tossing and turning at night. There is just so many things that can go wrong.. But the glaze tests look good and all systems are go for "Scheme B", 3 different blues on 4 different patterns for 17 showers... Scheme A is still being worked out; we will use the same embossed patterns but the client has changed their mind on one of the glazes and I am now working on 3 different terracotta glazes instead of just one... hopefully the next go-round of tests will yield acceptable results... It's either that or go to the clay/glaze store and just buy something that will complement the one we already have.. I will know in the next few days...
Meanwhile I still have 80-90 tiles to roll out and make sometime in the next week. Not a problem however, I am ahead of schedule and feeling confident...

As last weekend's Holiday Open Studio was such a bust, I have decided to sell work for the next two Sundays downtown in the Railyard.. Thank goodness for this little art market that helps me get through the winter! I am lucky to have a local market that I can pop into if my shows are somewhat soft like last weekend.. In addition, my good friend/potter Miya Endo will be there, hopefully with her ukelele, and we can at the very least have a lot of fun playing and singing inbetween customers... I look forward to it!..