Neon-Cat on thu 1 oct 09
Hi all!
After my recent great meltdown I was a little anxious about firing my kiln =
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again although it checked out fine for me and Arnold Howard and his Paragon=
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team by phone and email assured me it was probably OK.=3D20
Ha! It works just great!=3D20
It's been a rough year -- it took me a long time to save for the kiln and a=
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seeming eternity to save enough to get it hooked up and wired to city code=
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. It wasn't until recently that I had any ceramic supplies so in the meanti=
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me I made do working with native river bank clays and some soluble salts af=
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ter the kiln was good to go. There was not a normal clay or flux here to sp=
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eak of, just a few oxides. It is nice now to have some EPK, ball clay, Cust=
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er, etc.=3D20
At the risk of embarrassing him I am going to say a public thank you to Bil=
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l Merrill (Peninsula College, WA) who so kindly sent me a huge and heavy ca=
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re package containing an assortment of 3-4 pounds each of basic clays and f=
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luxes. His package was delivered right after I was able to shop for a few t=
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hings myself. Bill's generosity warmed my heart. He's a great guy and very =
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experienced, informative, patient, detailed, and reassuring with the answer=
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ing of questions if you ever have need of a clay consult.=3D20
I gotta say, too, a big public thank you to Logan Johnson who's helped to k=
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eep me calm and working and laughing through all my new artist crises of co=
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nscious -- Logan is great with clay questions, tips, and chat, too.=3D20
The guys and gals from Claycraft have been good to me, too -- much apprecia=
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ted!
Anyway, I have posted a few new photos on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/pho=
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tos/neon-cat/ in the set 'River Bank Clay, "RiverWild" Series, 2009' or in =
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the Photostream).=3D20
I've nailed down the composition of a yellow-firing native clay body I like=
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, continued with my iron color studies, run some experiments on dispersive =
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and agglomerated clay bodies, played with and researched the consistency an=
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d workability of clay bodies, and continued to test newly discovered native=
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clays. Although hooked on native clays it is fun to think I can also now u=
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se more normal clay bodies and start some traditional glaze projects should=
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the mood strike me.
Wishing you all a joyous, creative day! =3D20
Marian=3D20
Neon-Cat=3D20
www.neon-cat.com=3DA0
neoncat@flash.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neon-cat/
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