A while ago I got an email from one of the ceramics newsletters that I’ve subscribed to and it had a video of the “Superchuck”.  In a nutshell, the device is attached to the wheel and used to trim the bottom of vessels with narrow openings or delicate rims (which would prevent them from setting upside down on the wheel).  It looked pretty convenient and not terribly hard to make so I decided to give it a try.  That was a few months ago….  I would like to think that the slow process was more about taking my time and getting it just right but that wasn’t the case at all.  The process could have been shortened quite drastically but work and graduate classes and track season got in the way a bit.

I threw the main form a few months ago and maybe a month ago I glued that to a spare bat with Liquid Nails.  Then a few weeks ago I started testing some material to glue to the chuck to prevent the pots from slipping as they rotate.  The video suggests neoprene but I would have had to order it online and I didn’t want to invest too much in case I never use this thing more than once.  I finally decided to try “Shelf Liner” material.  Yeah, the stuff you line shelves with…  It was pretty cheap and it seemed to have the attributes that I was looking for.  I measured it out and cut it and then glued it to the chuck with Krazy glue.  It seems to be on there pretty tight.  And the material seems to offer pretty good grip.  As soon as I throw something decent, I’ll trim it with this “Superchuck” and see if mine works as well as the one in the video.  I’ll even try to remember to post my results here.

New posters and pictures for the clay studio

I recently noticed how uninspiring my clay studio was and decided to spruce it up a little.  I found a few old posters I’ve had since college and found some pictures of pottery that I like (mostly on the internet).  I slapped them up on my walls and all of a sudden I feel much more inspired!  Maybe this summer I’ll get some interesting quotes printed off and taped to the wall.  In the picture you can see the wall by my wheel.  I also put a few pictures on the opposite wall and on the door.  I’ve still got a lot of empty space so if you have something interesting I could hang up, send it my way.

Not too long ago, as northern Indiana thawed out and the weather got warmer, the grass (along with my dismay) started to grow.  I began to dread another summer of push-mowing our entire yard every week or two.  I wasn’t worried so much about the physical strain on my out of shape body (it actually would have been quite a benefit) I just hated giving up a few hours per week to push around a mower held together with a hose clamp and duct tape and also has no discharge cover causing the grass to go straight up into my face.  I usually ended up with about 6 pounds of grass in my hair or stuck to my sweaty body every time I cut the grass.

The new riding lawn mower

My wife must have been feeling sorry for me (after I had to hose clamp and duct tape the handle back together) so we decided to get a riding lawn mower.  She even cashed in the credit card points to help pay for it.  We looked around for a while and finally settled on a Craftsman for a few reasons.  We could get the most $ for our credit card points at Sears and their warranty included house calls which will save us from borrowing someone’s truck/trailer to haul it in and get it serviced.  I’ve mowed the lawn a couple times now and it is fantastic.  It takes me half the time to mow the grass that it used to.  Unfortunately I haven’t spent any of that time updating the website (until now).  But even if I only save an hour every time I mow the grass I ‘ll probably save at least 8-10 hours total before school starts next year.  That’s a full day of throwing or painting (or climbing trees…)

Well, it’s been almost 2 months since I’ve even looked at my website.  I’ve had some news items to share but apparently not enough time to share them.  Not a lot has happened in the studio since my last update but plenty has been happening in the “real world”.  Track season came and went.  My team finished 7-2 on the season and we ended up 4th at the conference meet.  I finished my class at IUSB.  I finished my duties as a Reading Recovery teacher for the year and completed all my paperwork.  I began another season of grass mowing and other yard work.  I spent some time on the Internet studying fantasy baseball stats and getting used to Firefox.  I finished the yearbook at school and worked on the Black Lab website and finished a few minor graphic design jobs.  Now I have to finish my required technology days before summer break officially begins.  Then I’ll have to take another class at IUSB.  In the near future I hope to get back into the clay studio on a regular basis.  Today I worked on my trimming chuck.  Tomorrow I hope to finish it and get some clay ready to throw.

Now I’m sitting here at the old computer that I’ve pieced together.  It started as my original college computer (2000 AD) so it’s far from top-of-the-line.  I added some RAM, bought an LCD monitor and laser mouse while browsing garage sales and bought another Linksys USB adapter from ebay.  I decided Windows ME wasn’t what I wanted so I installed Ubuntu 8.10 and even got it onto the wireless network here at home (mostly by pure luck?).  Now I can surf the net while my wife is “doing research” which looks suspiciously similar to finding coupons on the Internet.  Ubuntu has run smoothly so far considering the ancientness of my machine but I haven’t exactly been editing video or playing the latest video game.  I plan to get a little more experience with Ubuntu and the world of Linux and the universe of Open Source software this summer.  First step: figuring out how to use my printer without unplugging it from the main computer and plugging it in here.  Second step: downloading and installing some of the 304 updates that the little red arrow says are available.  I better get busy…