Tuesday, August 23, 2011

a sturdier wine cup

this one will hold up much better for me! i was fondling this cup in David Orser's booth at the fair and he insisted that i have it. it feels so good in my hand. i like David's work a lot, we have some of his plates that get used nearly everyday. His wife, Laurel MacDuffie, makes amazing boxes.

we woke up to very comfortable and cool air this morning... perfect timing for us. Jeff is stoking the wood kiln at David Stuempfle's today (always a hot job!) and i have what seems like tons of clay to pug. i started yesterday afternoon, only to find that the clay in the old bluebird had started to dry and wouldn't budge. Jeff took it apart and we had to dig a fair amount out before we could get it moving. it was a lesson learned... i have to pug more often here in the heat than i did in NH. the pugger stayed unused in my old studio for nearly a year and it never dried out. i always put a wet sponge in the hopper and cover everything in plastic. i just have to look on the bright side... if i pug more often the task won't seem as daunting!

7 comments:

  1. I put a wet towel in the openings, including hanging one over the exit and then put plastic over the towel and that keeps it from seizing up because of drying clay. Periodically, I check to make sure there's still enough moisture in the towels and re-wet if necessary.
    My Bluebird Powerstar was purchased used and it took my apprentice and me forever to clean out the dried clay and I vowed to never have to do that job again! :-(

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  2. I hate pugging and the mess and therefore don't--I just put yesterday's trimmings into today's clay for wedging :)

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  3. I see your Etsy square has gone too- The Carpenter thinks that they could have tweaked the address

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  4. Gwyneth - thank you for letting me know about the empty etsy square. i copied a new link into it and now it's back.

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  5. Yes, that's my kind of wine cup, if you notice on my blog post right now there is a nice little cup that I think Joseph Sand made at Mark Hewitt's. It is the perfect size for serving. Weather is great today isn't it!!!

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  6. Oh that is a nice one goes well with red I think. I wish we'd get a cool down.

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