The triumphs are few so far, the two largest pieces of the Norton sculpture seem to be coming together and drying nicely. (Now they simply need to be transported about five miles and put in a kiln without breaking….then fired to 04-03 of course before being brought back and finished. Decided against pushing my luck trying for a gold circle at cone 6….I’ll use acrylic. They were made originally of 3 bags of clay, cut in length and pounded together to get a large flat surface, once the top was somewhat dry, they were turned over on their boards (with help from Grant, my son-in-law) and the back side cleaned out except for supporting cross-sections.

The first sculpture is near being finished, base with one coat, need to decide if I like the matt black…hard to keep clean in a clay environment. The small sinks and stove fronts have been put together and my collection of metal objects is growing and the clay parts have been fired. It’s based on an idea I got while talking with David and Tanya’s friend Scott M. in Airdrie Alberta. THANKS Scott!)

Tribulations? Lost 14 twelve inch tiles in the first firing. The other twenty can be re-constituted, I am not firing them. They can kept until I duplicate the ones I especially like when I re start the 12 inch tiles piece. I’ve reconfigured it too, it will be wide instead of a rectangle now that I have a photo of the syncline plane from Randy Miller.

Why did they break? Hubris ,as Dalton Camp said of a certain young man whose over-confidence killed him. The breakage was caused by the combination not using enough grog and not being able to dry them between gyp-rock panels. Tiles can be dicey and mine had raised positive areas of impressions made by man-made objects. Trying to have both a smooth surface and three-dimensional objects. So now I am trying again, back to “square one” actually!!!.

Trials...icy studio steps and a split second later I’ve dis-located my shoulder…after a few bad words later trying various parts of my anatomy to see if they moved, I staggered into the house. I couldn’t lift my left arm on my own but that night I fell against my shoulder getting into bed and I heard and felt a distinctive “pop” and the next day I could lift my arm. Doin’ the dance of joy…carefully. That was 2 weeks before Christmas and it did slow me down a bit. Oh yes, and my large kiln isn’t firing properly, another element has gone.

I think that’s enough, I’m not complaining exactly…just trying to state facts. ..helps decide what is next on the to do  list. We had a wonderful family Christmas and New Years…now if only the boys and their families were home from Calgary….sigh…..