Done-ish

As I said in my last post, my batteries arrived and I went back to work. Of course, they were not the exact batteries I needed, but with a slight modification they fit my tools. And thus the completion of the cabinets.

Preparing to instal wall cabinets.

Wall cabinets up.

Doors on.

The not quite finished studio.

Fully loaded cabinets. Pretty freakin' sweet.

Granted everything is not quite there yet. I still plan to re-do the top of my work table, get a second set of shelves, get a sink, tile the counter top, make a proper spray booth, permanently instal the kiln vent...ok, maybe "not quite there yet" was understating things a bit. Regardless of what is left to do, though, the space is functional so I can finally get back to work making stuff.

Hopefully I will have some better content next time. Until then.

-Rob

Get back to work!

The new charger and batteries have arrived. Construction may resume. AND I am looking at a window a/c unit tomorrow, so I may not have to sweat to death in the studio any more. Good deal.

No one puts Rob in a corner! Ok, a circle saw puts Rob in a corner.

Well the wall cabinets are ready to go up...almost. I have sort of worked myself into a corner. Everything is put together except for one piece of panelling. I cut everything else with a hand saw, but this piece is too big to do that. And I would be able to use my circular saw...if it had any power. I have been putting off getting a new battery and charger and now when I need it, I don't have it. Foolish, foolish Rob! So now I get to spend entirely too much money on a new battery charger and a couple new batteries and wait for them to arrive before work can continue.

In the mean time I have been painting everything. Two layers of some cream-ish color on the bases; two layer of brown-ish on the panels.


I have a little bit of touch-up work to do and I still need to paint the wall cabinets. Otherwise they are done, well, apart from putting everything back together. I am going to hold off on putting the knobs and pulls back on. I think I am going to try making some custom pulls, just for fun.

And finally, here is a better picture of Daisy for you Gary.

Next time perhaps I will have some clay related news to report. Until then...

-Rob

Construction again (RE-construction, if you will)

In case anyone was wondering, no, the continuing ed class did not make. We actually had fewer people show up for the second class than we did for the first. They are, however, going to offer it again this fall. The program director said fall enrollment is usually a good deal higher than summer, so there is still a chance.

As far as what has been going on for the past few weeks, I have been doing a lot of moving stuff around, a lot of building and a lot of spending a week in Branson. Ok, only a week of spending a week in Branson, but you get the idea. That was a big family vacation thing (15 people!). Hectic, but enjoyable.

Most of my time has been spent renovating the studio. I decided to claim more of the garage and get things set up proper. Not a lot to say about it, but here are a few pictures of how things have been going.

Old Studio Set-up

Creating more space

Creating more mess

Still a mess

And here is the latest thing I have been working on.

Truck full of junk

To the untrained eye this is a truck full of junk. But to the discerning individual this is...well it is still a truck full of junk, but junk with potential. Actually this is an old set of cabinets, sink and counter top that I got hold of. Storage space was a problem with the old set up. I ended up having tools and what-not stacked everywhere, taking up space I needed to work. Hopefully this will remedy that situation.

Beginning of the end of disorganization...maybe

The cabinets were not in the greatest of condition, so I have spent a lot of time and a lot of scrap lumber getting them reinforced and such. As of now I have all the base cabinets in and the wall cabinets should be ready to go up today. I plan on repainting them since they are currently a dirty 70's brown. It is an extra step, but I know they will bug me every day if I don't repaint them.

I have also been working on a new chicken coop that I will be able to move around the yard. More on that later though. Right now I have to pick up some lumber and such to finish said coop before getting after those cabinets again.

I just saw an owl riding in the back of a pick-up truck.

-Rob

Studio Saga 4: On the Fence

Two thoughts on teaching classes today.
First of all, I have come to the conclusion that I really only want to teach clay classes. I am currently teaching three summer classes for middle/high school kids; one ceramics class and two that are more arts & crafts kind of things. In the ceramics class I have not had a single problem. I just put the clay out there, show them a couple things and the kids work for the full two hours. In the other classes, though, it is exceedingly difficult to keep the students focused on the projects. Work that should take them at least an hour to finish gets slopped through in 20 minutes...ugh.
Secondly, the continuing education class I am teaching had its first meeting last night. Initially I was worried because only three people had preregistered for the class; we need 10 for the class to carry. Last night we had five people show up, so now...(multiply by four, carry the three, subtract the square root of x...), ok now I am still worried. It is still on the fence. All the ladies in class agreed to harass their friends and family to get a few more people in next week. I will again be hitting up my (very small) circle of influence to see if I can scare up a few more students. If we can get eight people we might have a fighting chance. Next week is the last week for registration, though; if we don't get it by then we are out.
So if anyone is in the Southern Illinois area, or knows someone in the area who might enjoy taking a handbuilding class, please send them my way. Who knows; if someone shows up with a reference from one of you fine folks, a mug or something just might find its way into the mail. That's right, I am bribing you all...please accept if at all possible.
Until later...

-Rob

Studio Saga Vol. 3b: The Teaching Aspect Revisited

According to the last post regarding this subject I was in contact with the continuing ed. director and trying to contact the ceramics instructor. As it now stands, both the director and the instructor have been contacted and met. The result? No, the instructor was not thrilled with the idea of having a continuing education class in "her" studio, but the class will proceed non-the-less. Yay for Rob!
If anyone reading this is in the southern Illinois area and is interested in taking a class in ceramics, or if you know someone who might be, you can check it out here. It is a hand building class called "Ceramics for Beginners." We will meet Tuesday nights from 6 - 8:30 starting June 14th.

Additionally, I have contacted another school (K-12) about teaching next school year. Initially I did not really know what kind of class to offer. I was given the school's contact information and told they might be interested in offering more art courses or something.
Hmmm.... So I called up the school and talked to the principal. They already have an art teacher who handles the studio side of art, but she is not much interested in teaching art history, which is something the principal would really like to offer. I have yet to fill out the applications and such, and brush up on my art history, but it is another lead. We'll see where it goes.

Mass Production on a Small Scale

A couple weeks ago I wrote a little post/essay thing about mass production. And I do mean I wrote it...on paper...with a pencil. That concept would probably be foreign to most kids today. They would probably say that it was too much work to physically write something and give up before they even started. But I digress. I wrote the post...then lost it. To the best of my recollection it went something like this.

I recently got a comission to make a number of magnets for a local living history museum type thing (Saxon Luthern Memorial...check it out, good stuff). This year is the memorial's 50th anniversary and they wanted to "celebrate" it by giving away commemorative magnets at their major events. Since I already have some work in their gift shop (including magnets) and since my mom is the curator, they asked if I would be able to come up with something. Yay for nepotism!

So how many magnets do they plan on giving away? Over the course of the year they estimated 2000-3000. Whoa. That's a lot of magnets. Being the agreeable chap that I am, though, I said I would take a run at it. I started out doing some sketches and carving up a prototype. After that got the ok I made a plaster mold.

Plaster press molds for magnets

Now this was the first time I had ever made a plaster mold, so I was delving into new territory. It didn't seem too complicated, though, and I think the first mold turned out pretty good. I have since made six more to speed production, but they didn't turn out as well. I think the plaster was too thick. They work, though; the casts that come out of them just require a little more cleaning up.

Cast of the commemorative magnets...fancy.

Thus far I have finished 150 magnets. The glaze did not turn out anything like it was supposed to, so I am not going to post a picture of that. Suffice it to say that it was supposed to turn out gold, and silvery black is not the same thing as gold. But I have quite a few left to make, so I will get it worked out.

Later I will post more about the actual production part of it. How exactly does one man make that many magnets by himself? Is he Superman? Tune in next time to find out!

Studio Saga Vol. 3: The Teaching Aspect

A quick post before I run off to bed. It has been a while since I have written anything regarding the future studio, mostly because there has not been much to write about. Recently, though, I have made a small amount of headway on the teaching front. I contacted a local community college about offering a pottery class in their continuing education program. It was actually way back in January when I first contacted the program director; he said to wait until mid March and send him my resume and such. Done
So now I have talked with him a couple time via the computer box and he seems very interested in offering a pottery course. Apparently they used to have one, but for some reason no longer do. I also contacted the full time ceramics instructor at the school to discuss studio issues. She was not in when I called so now I am eagerly awaiting her reply.
As I think I said before, the original idea was to offer classes in my own studio, but I think the start up costs (space, insurance, utilities, equipment, etc) are a bit much at this time. Hopefully teaching at the community college will work out so I can supplement whatever studio income I can generate. Then I can build the studio up a little at a time and offer my own classes some time in the future.
Ok, that is all for now. I will see if I can scrape some time together tomorrow to rant about mass production.

This killing time is killing me

I have been meaning to post on here for the past week and a half, but it seems like something always gets in the way. Just now I stopped writing this for a few minutes to jot down a strange dream I had this morning (it was about a wombat that was the size of a hampster). See? It is always something. Then last night, after putting off the blog for yet another day, I was thinking; it is not really the typing and posting that takes a lot of time. Even editing and posting pictures does take that long. It is composing the posts that is a bit time consuming. This led to the realization that while I may not have a lot of time in the evenings, I do have quite a bit of time during the day when I could get my thoughts down. Being a hall monitor in a high school is not the most difficult job in the world. My day consists of writing passes for visitors, signing people into the building, checking hall passes and ocassionally breaking up a fight. (It is actually quite sad that a full time hall monitor position is needed to begin with, but that is a completely different subject.) This leaves me with large-ish blocks of time with little to do. I usually use that time to work in my sketch book or stare mindlessly out the door. I think I will start using my door staring time to compose blog posts (I wrote this post this morning and I am posting it during my lunch break!). Then maybe I can post on a more regular basis and perhaps more frequently! Aren't you readers out there in the inter-web lucky?

Know Your Goat!

Earlier I promised more on goats. I know how the goats keep people coming back for more. Well here, today, we have more on goats.


Recently while talking to my wife and possibly other people in a context that I do not remember the topic of animals was brought up.
(Side note: My lack of memory was not due to anything untoward. The situation was just unimportant.)
Much to my suprise my wife says that she would not mind having a goat. My jaw would have dropped, but I'm a pretty cool cat so I kept it together. You see, I have wanted to expand our current animal ownership for a while in an effort to be more self sufficient. My wife has not. Thus when she said she was open to an animal larger than a basset hound I was quite taken aback.

Eventually we got to the crux of the matter, though. Why would she be ok with having a goat? Because she thinks it would be cute to see our son playing with it...she wants another pet. This is not exactly what I had in mind. When she says goat, she is thinking this...



When I say goat I am thinking this...

Missed it by that much.

Regardless, the issue is now on the table. The wife is ok with goats; I am ok with goats...the only question now is would it be worth it? In an effort to help make this decision a little easier I purchased some goat products (which are rather expensive!) to give them a try. Not much sense in raising goats if you don't like what comes out of them. I liked both the milk and cheese; my wife was ok with them. We have yet to try the goat meat. Perhaps this weekend.

Similarly I have started doing a small bit of research on raising goats and I can tell that I have barely scratched the surface. In that regard, if anyone has any good resources on raising goats (books, websites, magazines, etc) I would appreciate it if you tossed them my way.

Ok, enough goats for one night. I have to go do dishes and whatnot. (This is where a clever sign off would be if I had one. Any suggestions?)

-Rob