Monday, February 14, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
-2 F in the Woods
That song was written for today. It's 8 in the morning and it's colder now than when I got up at 5:45! Winter is upon us! I will stop feeling like a slacker for not getting the sugar maples tapped last weekend.
I taught the Ceramics students how to glaze last night. I glazed the two little vases and bowl I made with some of the new glazes in the studio, but I don't like these glazes much - too much bentonite in them - they get all gluey and puddley. I should suspend judgment until I see how they look after firing - they could work beautifully.
We are planning on doing a real pit firing - dig a hole in the ground, start a fire to make a bed of coals, throw on sawdust, put on the pots, metal oxides for color, more sawdust, manure and newspaper for heat, lots more wood, let it burn down, cover it up to let it cool slowly and then retrieve lovely pots from ashes pit firing. This will happen the week after Fourth of July.
But, I need to focus on teaching the other classes I have right now. And go give the thirsty ponies some liquid water - I expect their tank is an icecube.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Snow time like the present...
Thoughts on Beauty and Function
Maintain a baseline of functional beauty.
Something that is broken is seldom beautiful and never functional, so fix what's broken immediately.
Make routine maintenance efficient and fun!
Real improvements increase beauty (and free time!) by simplifying function.