To be honest I'm a bit nervous about my first blog post since it kind of sets the precedent for whether its worth reading or whether I have any sense of humor. I could entertain you by writing about how I spent 40 minutes trying to hide a piece of paper in "Finding Joy in Life After 50", a self help book under M for menapause in isle 843 of powells this weekend or how I came within half an inch of running over a chipmunk on my bike, but I should probably just cut to the chase and tell you what I did today. After spending friday meticulously cleaning the entire Catlin ceramics studio and making a calendar for the next month, I was very eager to get to work today. I spent the morning at Eve Bachman's house discussing glaze recipes and how best to approach making my own glazes. We decided it would be best if I start out my making a simple iron glaze and then maybe move on to some other colors and also experiment with ash glazes. We also compared the form and function of a number of tea pots. In the afternoon I went into the Catlin studio and made 8 soup/cereal bowls, 2 mugs, 1 jar, 1 honey pot, 1 vase, 1 teapot, and 2 large bowls. I also sifted sage ash and ash from fence posts and ironwood that I collected on the Owyhee river over spring break so that I can make an ash glaze. Ash glazes usually need to be fired at a higher temperature than the kilns at Catlin which only go to cone 6, but I am hoping to add ingredients that will make the glaze melt at a lower temperature so that I can fire at Catlin. Eve stopped by for an hour or two to bring me some more books of glaze recipes that can be fired at cone 6 or lower and to check in to see what I was doing. She suggested that I try to make a huge bowl and after completely exhausting myself centering I was quite shocked to produce a nice looking big bowl! I spent half an hour this morning looking for my camera so I could take pictures of what I was making only to realize when I got home that it was in my bag all day, so I will take pictures of everything tomorrow and post them. I could not think of a way I would rather be spending my day and thoroughly enjoyed the extended amount of time alone in the studio with Neil Young, Norah Jones, and Wilco. I'll admit that I might have edited out a few of the less respectable musicians from that list...wouldn't sound the same if I were to say I enjoyed my day alone with Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers, and that 13 year old boy, Justin something or other (I swear the list wasn't actually that bad). Tomorrow I'm planning to get up early to trim everything I made yesterday and then hopefully start making some glazes before a late afternoon gallery visit.