Back in the Studio

It has been a very busy week and a half since I got home! I am now living in the same house as my studio, and it is wonderful-- I spend 8-10 hours there working every day, while still having time to work out and cook dinner. A lot of work is being accomplished, which is good because I was starting to have little moments of panic when I contemplated all the projects I have to finish by the second week of September. The trip was amazing and I'd never pass up an opportunity like that, but it sure did eat into my show prep time!

My three big projects, not including any clay work, are:

* Building a spray booth and getting it installed in a room off my studio, along with venting the window and getting a fan to suck the glaze out of the air. The booth is built and caulked, awaiting polyurethane, and the other materials are purchased.

* Developing a set of earthenware glazes. I am currently stopped for a day or two because I realized I'd lost my mini-scale and needed to order a new one for oxide tests in the base glazes.

*Setting up a photography studio. I finally got the background and background support, the lighting set, and I put all of those together today. I also rigged a curtain setup to create and control the horizon line.

I am also learning how to pit fire (in a big metal trash can), making plaster molds for a few of my designs, casting and altering the designs I have already molded, testing and learning the commercial glazes I bought, working on a wall mural, and working on some Eastern Coil sculptures.

Today my camera, a Canon Powershot A610, which I love for its flip-out and rotatable screen (no bending down to look at the pictures!), died on me. Not completely-- but there seems to be some disconnect between the lens and the digital part... it refuses to show or take anything but all-black, but otherwise the screen works fine (it will show icons and previously taken pictures). It did this once before, but a shake and a prayer got it working again. This time... we'll see. If it doesn't come back to life, I will need to borrow or buy another camera, which means learning a new system since each camera is different and requires different tweaks. Sigh...