After camp, I was back in the studio trying to get myself back into full production mode.
Gotta start somewhere… so why not start with my favorite form?! MUGS!!!

One bag of B-Clay… a stack of square bats… and a pile if wedged balls of clay. Ready to go!
About an hour of throwing with an hour of Olympic coverage, and I had two dozen cylinders
off the bats, wrapped up and put away for the night. Hoping to stamp them all tomorrow
in between camp & teaching my adult class!

Today I made it back into the studio after my extended Dover excursion!
Before I left, I set up a huge pile of reclaim clay onto my plaster bat while I was gone.
I had expected to be gone for one week, but the “glitter gig” turned into a 2-week
project – setting up, watching bands, watching people, then packing it all up!
So I was a little concerned that the pile of reclaim clay might have dried out too much
while I was gone. I was very relieved to find the pile of clay still moist… and actually
a little bit wetter than I would like it to be. But I proceeded to tackle the mound any way!

So I started by pulling it off the plaster bat and piling it up into cubes. The clay was still
a bit gooey, so I pounded it into blocks and put them back on the plaster bat to set-up
a bit more. Glad it wasn’t a hard, dried brick… instead, it was quite the opposite!

Special thanks to my Northwoods friend Amy who gave me all this clay. Sure it was all
dried trimmings and other chunks. But after a few weeks of slaking down, I now have a lot
of wedging ahead of me… and a lot of “free” clay to make things out of it. Remember, this
was just the first half of the clay scrap I got from Amy… and it totaled out at 186 pounds
of reclaimed clay… and one used chamois hidden inside just as an added challenge!

Pile it on… pounds of possibilities! Here’s the first half of the reclaimed clay
that I got from Amy Higgason from the Northwoods. It’s been slaking down
for awhile now, and tonight I turned it out onto a large plaster bat to help it
set up a bit. The other half of her trimmings & scraps are now in my bin,
covered with water, slaking down for the next batch. My understanding is that
this is a mixture of white stoneware and B-clay. We’ll see what comes of it.

I love reclaim. I love free clay!!!

It was a fun evening in the studio…
making a new batch of textured tiles and enjoying the “free” air conditioning!
The different slips will create the flashes of color when they get into the soda kiln.

Although it seems as though the heatwave may have broken today?! Finally.
Right now the evening breeze is quite enjoyable.

Tonight I went to the studio… presumably to work with clay.
Sure, I have a lot of work to do. Sure, I have some reclaim that’s almost ready to
be put on the plaster bat. Sure, I have a lot of glazing of class demo pieces to do.
But seriously, it was more about the free air conditioning!!!

With the heatwave that is going across the country, and hovering over Chicago,
we’ve had temperatures bouncing right around a hundred degrees for a few days now.
So I biked, swam and played outside most of the day. But when I got home and tried
to get some work done – it was just too friggin’ hot. So I went to the studio to suck up
some good old fashioned air conditioning!!! I’d like to say I made some cool stuff…
but really, the only “cool stuff” I was concerned about was the air conditioning!!!

If you’re setting your TiVO for my HGTV debut this Saturday night,
there have been a few “slight” changes. Nothing too big…
but this might help you find it on your DVR???

The new name of the HGTV show is “Meg’s Great Rooms”
and the title of my episode is “Kitchen Transformed With Texture.”
And it’s still all about me… well, at least 20-seconds of it?!!!

Remember, it’s on THIS Saturday night at 8:00pm Central… June 9, 2012.

Remember that big pile of gooey clay I was reclaiming in my studio a couple weeks ago?…

Well, tonight I finally pounded it up and put it into clay bags.
Turns out it was two hundred & eleven pounds of “FREE” clay!!!

Sure, it still needs a lot of wedging before it can be used. But I needed to get it off the big
plaster bat before it got too dry. My next step will be to take my “mixed-up reclaim” clay
and layer it with some “new” clay. I’ll take a new bag and interleave it with the reclaim,
cut it, layer it, squish it, pound it… cut it, layer it, squish it, pound it… repeat. Once the
layers are incorporated with each other, I can start the wedging. I’ll do a bit of wedging
and then put them back into the bag. I’ll so the “real wedging” when I get ready throw
with it. Until then, the bags of reclaimed clay will be sitting in the corner of my studio.
Just waiting…

Well, it seems like Summer may have finally made it to Chicago “for real” this time?!
And with it so sunny outside today, I felt it was a great day to bring some “sunshine”
into the studio with some new flowers. And by “new” I mean “new to my studio”…
not really new. I’m just “repurposing” them from a glitter gig again!

As a productive studio artist, I use a lot of clay.
And with that, comes a LOT of scraps & trimmings to be reclaimed.
I work hard to reclaim as much clay as I can. I put all of the dried scraps into
a large orange container in my studio, and fill it with water. As the clay absorbs
the water, it slakes down to become clay once again. When it feels & looks like clay
again, and much of the water has been absorbed, it’s time to scoop out the clay mix
and place it on a large plaster bat. So that’s what I did tonight… I scooped & scooped!
I scooped until my reclaim bin was empty and the bat was overflowing with clay.

And there it will sit until the overly-gooshey clay stiffens up and can be wedged up.
And when it’s ready… it’s a LOT of wedging, and wedging, and wedging…

And just in time… as my Northwoods potter friend Amy Higgason got “a little behind”
in her studio reclaiming and brought some of her scraps for me! Just a couple boxes…
okay, like twelve!!! That’s a lot of scraps!

So Amy’s scraps have now been placed in my reclaim tub. Add water. And wait…
Soon enough, it’s going to be  another huge batch of FREE CLAY!!!

Well, I just added the last batch of soda mixture into my kiln.
Very hot. Lots of flames – so much fun! Not for the weak of heart.
The soda mixture is introduced on a long angle iron through a brick over the fire box.
The filled angle iron goes in and gets dumped into the fire box.
Instant combustion. Instant vapors. Instant flames shooting out all over the place!
Luckily, tonight I only burned off a few arm hairs.

Once the angle iron is removed, the “peep” brick gets put back in to keep the soda vapors
“trapped” and moving around inside – hitting all the pots inside building up a beautiful surface!

In case you’re wondering, my soda mixture is a combination of soda ash, soda bicarbonate,
whiting and wood chips. Mixed with a little bit of water to create a lumpy, oatmealy texture.

So now it’s just a waiting game for the kiln to get back up to top temperature
and for a little extra “soak” to get some more soda effects on the pots inside!
And now for the tough part… the kiln cools all day tomorrow, and won’t be unloaded
until Monday night! Gotta wait… stay tuned for pictures!