Hey hey hey, it's a Tuesday... also it is a work day. I don't much feel like going to work, because my mind actually has some motivation to spare. I can feel the energy pulsing through me, and I've only had one sip of my hazelnut cream coffee. Yesterday I had less than no motivation. As far as work goes for the herbarium, I have done two sculptures this week, but it's still not enough to be caught up. What it means is that I should do two sculptures tonight after work so I can show that I've made progress. I did put more effort into the cute little mushroom sculpture last night. I even gave them a leafy substrate.

The Beer Blog:
Ok, I have successfully (for the most part) made a completed batch of beer with dandelion leaves and chamomile flowers as a hops replacement and it is now in the fermentation process. I malted the wheat enough to make a honey colored concoction, but my pot wasn't big enough to hold an entire gallon of water so I had some issues trying to make the concoction strong enough... so I added some molasses and honey while I was hopping it. It tasted good before I put it into fermentation, good enough that I had to taste it twice. It wasn't because of how sweet it was-- I think the flavor balance was satisfying. Last night I made some darker fresher malt, and I have a better idea for a soaking tank. I tried using a big jar (it was only a one gallon batch anyway) sitting on top of but not sitting down in a crock pot. It was still too hot and too small of a vessel. I have a bigger pan that I know will fit the liquid, and I am going to try a more gentle source of heat. If I could just use the sun, I would prefer it, but it isn't constant through the night and who knows if that would even work. I suppose it might be worth a try, but first I will try candle warmers sitting underneath the pot. I need to keep the mixture at about 90-95 degrees Fahrenheit for a nice long period of time, so I might have to alternate the candle warmers and turn them on and off. I will figure it out. This is the perfect challenge for a bored 21-year-old adventurous cook/brewer.
It's not just beer that I have been working on. I have also been trying to make different herbal wines (wort) and a couple of batches of sake. I hope they work out... mostly I think it's a patience issue. The sake seems to be making the quickest progress. I didn't make it the traditional way because I didn't have the rice fungus that transforms the starches into fermentable sugars from the steamed rice, so I just used steamed rice and cheated with white sugar... so no, it's not traditional. Sometime I will try to get some of the rice fungus-- ordering it online or whatnot. For now, I am just learning about the basic process of brewing. I did start some dandelion wine, and I sneaked a sniff (it smells delicious!) the other day. I think it will be successful. Anyway, it's a whole lot of waiting and not much else happens.

Ok, ok, yeah it's been a while... I suck at blogging. I will do a post about ceramic work a little later... but right now I am really excited about a new project I am working on. Oh, and I turned 21 recently, and in the U S of A, that means that I can legally imbibe (drink :) ). So... that also means that I can legally try home brewing-- making my own beer. I'm definitely a newbie, but I have a feeling that I could be good at it (considering how bored I am after coming home from work due to the fact that I don't have a ceramic studio here). It will be something to keep me busy, and the best way to learn about things is to try them yourself. I feel like I can gain a greater appreciation and taste for good beer after brewing my own. I tend to be a "snob" about just about everything, or rather, an elitist, mostly about food. That's another reason why I think I could be good at it. Plus, my botanical and cooking background makes me suited for finding good fresh hops and sprouting the wheat in the perfect conditions. All in all, I am super excited to complete my first batch. Oddly enough, last night when I decided to start on it, I was lucky enough to already have 2 pounds of sprouted wheat in the pantry-- the perfect amount to make malt for 1 gallon of beer. I made my malt last night, powdered it this morning, and added some more toasted split wheat to the mixture for more flavor (and more starch). It is now "steeping" and in a couple of days I should be able to hop it... but since I don't have fresh hops yet I will have to resort to dried or use a different herb. I don't have the dried, but I have easy access if I want to get some :) I work at an herb store.

Salty salty kilns... and birds and trees

So much to tell. I am the worst blogger of all time-- I don't even remember what I wrote about last or when that was. So... things have been going pretty great, personally and in the studio. Did I mention that I am also the T.A. for the art history class that I'm currently enrolled in? Yup. I thought it was worth mentioning at least. So in the studio, I have been staying busy like crazy-- probably more than is necessary, but I want to make the most of this semester. Also, I had to make work like crazy to help fill a salt kiln last week. I have been firing kilns like I've been baking cookies. Just last week between Thursday and Wednesday, I fired three bigger kilns-- and I was making pots and glazing them at the same time, and loading and unloading bisque kilns as well. The first kiln I fired was the class salt kiln (for the intermediate class that I am retaking). Oh, and I guess I should mention that we had a two-day workshop last week: Walter Keeler demonstrated his working techniques and styles on Wednesday and Thursday. On that same Thursday, my professor started the salt kiln at about 8:30am and was having issues with one of the burners. Apparently it just kept blowing out. When the workshop ended at 4:00pm, he asked me to watch the kiln for a while-- which I was fine with because I needed to make work for the other salt kiln anyway. I watched the kiln from then until about 10:00pm-- when my professor showed up again. That night they were having a dinner for Walter so the studio was basically empty. It was kind of nice being the only one there for a while. I had already introduced one round of salt before my professor got there, and I was waiting for it to clear out. He helped me finish the kiln-- told me to wait for the temperature to climb back up before introducing the second round of salt and be patient enough for cone 10 to tip-touch. The kiln was finished at 10:30pm.
Friday was just another class day with crit and glaze calc. We unloaded the salt firing on Saturday morning, and then the class loaded a bisque kiln and my professor rearranged the gas kiln that I loaded the day before. He said that he wanted to pack it tighter... and then he almost postponed firing it but I said that I would be around so I could fire it. The starting time was 1:05pm, and I finished it at 10:35pm. It was a lot smoother of a firing than the last time I fired that kiln... he did come to check on me once after I put it into body reduction. I guess I was doing alright, because he just left again. I got a lot of work done for the next salt kiln, and I glazed most of my work (thanks to seeing the awesome results from the class salt firing from the day before. We finished glazing on Sunday afternoon and immediately loaded the kiln and started the pilots to candle it over night. We started it at 11:00am the next day, and finished it at around 10:45pm. It wasn't too bad. We unloaded it on Wednesday afternoon. I got some amazing results, and here are the photos:

Salt fired mugs. Turquoise oribe, thick application. (not from either of the firings from this week, but I thought they made a nice photo together. The atmosphere was a little more reduced than I would have liked... notice the pink speckling on the surface)

Soda fired mugs. Turquoise oribe copper glaze. The glaze ran like crazy because there was a ton of residual soda in the kiln...

Soft slab mug. Red stoneware with painted porcelain slip, gas reduction cone 10. This was in my first firing that didn't run as smoothly, even though my professor said that I got "decent" results.

Mug. Red stoneware with painted white slip and sgraffito decoration. Gas reduction cone 10. This came out of the more successful gas firing that I just did on Saturday.

And now... the latest salt-fired work! :)

Cup. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito lines. Oh, and the liner glaze is the one that I came up with from my grid in glaze calc... with 10% zircopax. It makes a nice stable satin matte liner glaze :)

Bodice mug. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito decoration.

Tree cup. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito decoration.

Cup. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito decoration. 

Cup. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito lines.

 

Small tree pitcher. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito decoration.

Bird pitcher. Red stoneware with painted white slip and sgraffito illustration. This one is my personal favorite :) I am thinking about submitting this photo for our slideshow at NCECA :)

Bird pitcher, second view.

Alex introducing a round of salt into our kiln...

And this is me introducing the last round of salt :)

First Kiln #5 gas firing

It's been a little crazy lately-- not much time for blogging.. This semester has been great so far, and I have been keeping up with my classes, work, and studio work pretty well. I guess today is a day where I am letting myself have a true break, for better or for worse. I feel like I have been in the studio every day for the past two weeks or so, and a day off is a good idea. Anyway, I do have at least one photo to show for all of the work I've been doing. I filled a larger kiln with all of my own work for the first time and fired it. There were a few mishaps along the way-- due to a single detail that I apparently overlooked. I forgot to put the cuffs on the burners after I lit both of them, which made it basically impossible for me to give the kiln enough oxygen to cancel out the amount of fuel going into the kiln. I couldn't turn up the blowers without putting out the tips of the burners, so after I put the kiln into body reduction, it just kept getting heavier. I finally realized that I should put the cuffs on, and everything just became so much easier... but I was super embarrassed about how heavy of a reduction I had it in. I was able to re-oxidize the atmosphere at the end with a few tips from a grad student. The whole point of re-oxidizing at the end was to bring out the red color of the iron-rich clay that I used. I got a few decent pieces out of the firing, but there was a glaze combination that just didn't work out. My professors said that it looked under-fired, but there were plenty of other pieces with mature glazed surfaces in the kiln, so I think it must have been something else, unless eutectics caused the glaze combination to be impervious to the normal glaze firing temperature of the two separate glazes... oh well. I just won't glaze with that combination again, even though I have successfully done it before. My professor said that the work I got out of it seemed mostly decent, aside from anything with that glaze combo on it.

The bowls with the bubbly blue glaze on the inside are the ones that didn't work out... and the few of them that had a decent crystallized surface cracked, probably because I chose not to glaze the exteriors of the bowls... oops. I was trying something new.

These bowls on the top shelf turned out decent-- which is ironic because they were a last-minute addition to my kiln load to fill it to the top. I just decided to try some new glazes on them that I had a good idea of how they would turn out.

Change out of Reach

Crowds of people waiting for change, do they realize it's happening now? Everywhere, all the time. Change will always be in action, moving forward, molding perspectives, taking away predictability. There are those who can't see the change, and there are those who fear the change. People are just waiting for the next best thing to happen to them. Change brings new experiences in life, but expecting the change to bring you everything is a lost cause. Change is a driving force that lives within every particle of every being. Even inanimate objects carry it in their composition. Minerals transition from one form into another through methods of change: iron into rust, rocks into clay, sand into glass. Change can be a curse, or it can be the transit way to new beginnings and opportunities. Those who take risk with salt and pepper are those who benefit from change. Why, then, when change comes to me I don't know how to face it? The worst part is thinking about how even though perceptions have changed for me, physical distances remain the same. If only there were a way of teleportation that only took a second. No, I don't know how to embrace this change because it is still too far away. For now all I can do is to enjoy what I have near me-- but try not to forget the opportunity presented to me.

Facts of Life

1. Roommates always suck.

2. The toilet paper is always gone.

3. Your first kiss will be awkward and not romantic in any way.

4. There will never be a good time to do something that you don't want to.

5. There will always be that one person who won't laugh at your jokes.

6. The majority of people take themselves too seriously-- which is why everyone feels so self-conscious.

7. Dropping your phone is not the end of the world.

8. Choosing not to go to a party doesn't make you a nerd.

9. Drinking diet soda won't make you get any skinnier-- if anything, you will gain weight.

10. You will never be old enough to do what you want to-- until you're too old to do anything.

11. Single men are single for a reason.

12. All of the good ones are taken-- but half of them aren't happy.

13. Do what you love, and you will find people who will love you.

14. Pens always run out of ink while you are taking an exam.

15. Nothing new ever really happens on facebook if you check it five times a day.

16. Doing things for other peoples' reasons won't get you what you want.

17. Fantasy is usually a lot better than reality.

18. If you live a lie, it will soon become who you really are.

19. You're only as good as your actions.

20. A straight guy will never notice the effort you put forth in getting ready.

21. It's easier to learn from other peoples' mistakes-- but you can learn more from your own.

New things... new space

So... I made some bowls in my space last night. I decided that I may as well get ahead on the assignment for the throwing class since I have to make 50 bowls eventually. I don't have the syllabus yet, and the rest of the class is working on getting certified and getting respirators so they can mix their clay. I am so glad that I got that over with last year... although my respirator might benefit from some new cartridges. Anyway, yesterday I was thinking of how I could make my space a little more personal. I am going to get a table somehow to work on, and then I will stick a few pictures on the wall-- probably cartoons and things that inspire me. Also, I want to take a few more tools and sponges, and maybe a towel or two. I don't really know where to begin. Today will be the second day of classes for me, and I need to buy a book for glaze calc at the bookstore and I have to remember that I have ceramic art history at 6:30 tonight. I will just throw until then... because my intermediate throwing class starts at 3:30.