Wrangell Garnets, Polished and Natural

After a little over a month of grinding and polishing in the vibrating tumbler the Garnets are finished and here is the results pictured against the host stone for comparison. The key to keeping them from becoming garnet dust was using plastic pellets. They still have imperfections due to the crazing inherent in the crystals from the local mine but came out with a fairly good polish. I plan on another trip to the mine sometime this spring to get some more specimens and maybe start another load in the tumbler. The garnets from our local mine are represented in the Smithsonian.

Hot out of the Kiln

I made this bowl with small coils of clay. Very time consuming and tedious, but well worth the effort.

My New Kiln

Here is my new kiln. Now I am able to fire larger pots than I could in the old bucket. It is made from an old compressor tank. I really like the way it came with it's own legs.



Here are a couple of pots that I fired in the new kiln.

Poka Dot Ball Pot

I just finished this pot, and fired it last night. I really like waking up to a shiny new pot. :)

New to Facebook/ Trip to Vegas

Yesterday Lynda and I signed up for a page on facebook under the tutelage of her mother. By the end of the day I was reconnected with classmates from high school, relatives I hadn't heard from for quite awhile, the preacher that preformed the marriage ceremony for Lynda and I as well as the best man at our wedding. Quite a walk down memory lane. I will endeavor to check in once in awhile and see how they all are doing.

Last week I was in Las Vegas for a conference with over 8,400 Physical Therapists and students to learn what is new in my field. The days were long and much was learned at the many classes I attended. I was dissappointed in the town, it seems to have lost some of its glamour or else I am not as interested in the artificial as much. Pictured is the conference center (Mandalay Bay) with the hotel I stayed in (Luxor) peeking up in the background. It rained one day there and the rest of the time was in the low 50's and windy. So much for fun in the sun. The flights were uneventful and it was good to get back home.

New Pot

Here is my newest pot. I think it looks like an acorn squash cut in half. There's not any glaze on it, instead I put a watery slip on it called terre sigillata, and that is what makes it very shinny.

Fired Pots

I fired these pots last night. They smoked and burned all night long. This morning Ron pulled them out of the ashes before I even got out of bed. I think he was too curious to wait for me. :)