Cranky

[offcntr]

I was down to 200 lbs. of fresh clay, 300 more that I recycled, so I called Clay Art Center in Tacoma to place an order. Need another ton of Cone 10 DWS (Dakota White with Sand, a nice, textured stoneware). No problem! They're only running two-three weeks behind.

Well, carp.

I'd kinda scheduled the next few weeks out, throw pots, take time out to do taxes, glaze pots, open Saturday Market, fire pots. This is not necessarily impossible to schedule around, but it has the potential to be. Which is almost more stressful.

One of the things I need to make for the next firing is donations for the Empty Bowls sale, coming up in May. Because they're not going into my booth, where they need to match the rest, I figured I'd pick up some cone 10 stoneware from Georgies, save the DWS clay for my own pots.

My first surprise was the price. For 100 lbs. of Umpqua White, I paid 78 bucks! Were I getting a ton (my usual order), it'd be nearly $1600. Don't know how much I'll be paying Clay Art for the DWS, but I don't think it'll be that much, even with shipping.

The second, worse surprise came when I opened the back. The clay was roughly the consistency of cream cheese, and if anything, got looser and sloppier as I wedged it. I had to leave it out in pieces all day to dry out a little, then wedge it up and portion it out. It also seemed to dry unevenly, more like porcelain than stoneware, so getting it properly mixed with no hard lumps or air bubbles was a challenge.

But I threw forty bowls the next morning, flipped them over to let the bottoms dry after supper, and this morning, discovered that they were almost too hard to trim. Struggled through it, although my arms and shoulders are really feeling the pain this afternoon. I'm really tempted to take the other 50 lbs. to Georgies for a refund. Terrible stuff.