Kiln

I'm feeling pretty great today. I am so excited I can hardly keep my breathing steady! Why? Because directed study presentations are over forever! ...And there is a salt firing that is in the process of cooling down that has a lot of my stuff in it! ...And the campus wide ping pong championship is tonight, and I have a shot at the trophy! ...And I might have myself an electric kiln, even though it is in need of some new coils! Whew, that was a lot, no wonder I'm so pumped! BWAAA!

Wind Power!

I'm really excited about energy efficiency, lately. I am especially pumped about wind energy because we have an overabundant supply of it in Iowa. Just the thought of powering my whole acreage with a wind mill the size of an old tv set fascinates me. Some models are pretty affordable and can be purchased in different power capacities: 1KW, 2Kw, 4, 6, etc. I am relatively sure that I will have one someday...

Sink

Today, after class, I went home and stepped over to the sink and happened to land on the rug in fron of the counter. It was wet... very wet. I looked under the sink and water was everywhere. I took everythig out, made sure it was fixed, and left again for Jazz band rehearsal.

2nd Round of Raku

This is the rest of the load. I couldn't upload all of the photos in one post. This is the load that I fired almost by myself :) Most all of these raku pieces are shown raw in a previous post to give you an idea of what you're looking at! Thanks again for your comments and suggestions.

Raku Firing!

This was done yesterday... I'm pretty pumped, but there are a few things I think I will do differently next time. It was pretty sweet, I watched Jake fire the first load and then I did the second load on my own. I feel more confident now about setting up my own kiln and doing this at home. I guess I'd need a wheel first, oh well. There is a show in Fort Dodge next week and I'm going to enter about three pieces. I have one at home that I plan on putting in, but I would like some of this stuff in it. I would love you to make suggestions, please :) Mr. Schlapkohl, I would love your input, especially.

More stuff

Here's the most recent stash of stuff. The smaller two jug like vessels with textured scrapes on the sides and the manipulated bladder are made with a special clay specifically for salt firing. I'm not sure how salt fired pieces look, but it will be neat to have some! Oh wait, the jar with handles is fresh today and is also made with the special clay. Enjoy and feel free to leave feedback!

God must like me...or I'm lucky ;)

I'm currently on spring break. Saturday I got to ride a dirt bike for the first time in four years...it felt great. Yesterday, my wife and I talked about getting a small toaster/convection oven to use less energy and cook faster for small items. Today I was at a NEW Cooperative seminar and got a free lunch. My dad, uncle, and I signed up for door prizes. I turned and told them both that I was feeling lucky today. We all got something and it turned out that Dad and I both picked up $50 Menards gift cards :) We promptly went to the store and began to look for the best way to spend our awesome prizes. Nothing really stuck out to me until I got to the appliances where I found a perfect convection oven for the precise amount that I could spend. I also signed up to win a new Camaro...we'll see what happens :)