Here is the whole flask vase 🙂 I don’t tease without giving a reward eventually 😉

I don’t feel as anxious now. I found a few distractions. Plus, I leave this place tomorrow 🙂 My dad thinks that I had too much caffeine yesterday and that’s what triggered it. I think he’s wrong. I didn’t have any more than usual. He just doesn’t approve of coffee-drinkers. I think it had a lot to do with my allergies, which have been particularly bad this week. Another explanation is that hormones got out of check or something. Who really knows. I know it wasn’t the caffeine. Maybe it’s suffocation– from being cooped up here. Yes, I get out of the house, but there’s not much to do when I’m not at work. Basically the options are to go hiking, walking, or go to the grocery store. The gas station is fairly popular here, but you won’t see me there unless I’m riding with someone else. I get my gas elsewhere.

In other news, I sold a teapot on etsy, my first sale! 🙂 It’s a start. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong to not be selling more… but I’ve never been good at advertising my own work. Anyway, I can’t wait to get out of town tomorrow. I’m going back to campus to spend a few days in the studio. It will be good to escape for a bit and make some work in my space on my own wheel. I might be able to get some pots bisqued or something, but the chances of actually being able to glaze fire are slim. I will probably have to wait another month until I can do that, unless a friend happens to be firing and needs work to fill a kiln. I guess I might not even do that, because I really want to try something new with my next firing. I want to fire the salt kiln the same way we fired the soda kiln during the workshop. I want to give it more reduction (so there might not be much turquoise in the kiln) and try the water-brick idea that we learned from Gail Nichols’ lecture last year. I will keep soaking the brick and sticking it back in the kiln– slowly introducing water to the atmosphere to create more dramatic flashing on the surfaces of the pots. I guess I may not be able to fire the salt kiln this weekend, but I could try to fire some of my stoneware pots in an indoor gas kiln… I would have to check the kiln schedule right when I got there and sign up for one of the smaller kilns. I don’t think I could fill number 5. I do want to fire some larger bowls and maybe a pitcher… so I will need to try for number 4.

Honestly, this summer is going by slower than last summer. August 24th is a long way away. I still have 44 days of living here. What can I do until then?