The View From Kalamazoo

Tomorrow is the last f-ing day for fresh clay! Aieeee!

So last night…discovered the lid for my covered casserole didn’t make it through bisque, had a couple of mugs’ bottoms drop out. The evening was singularly unpleasant for that sort of nonsense. Threw a huge platter and someone suddenly coming up right behind me caused me to jump while I was cutting it off the bat and I botched it. It was a like a grand comedy of errors, I swear.

I need to get in there and work – I have a beehive-shaped vessel (with awkward lid) that I want to make a handle and spout for. I have a completed kyusu pot that I want to make a set of yunomi for. I should make a honkin’ big bowl (to complete an assignment), since all of my attempts at a simple 15″ vase have come to nought – I seem to manage size fine when it comes to width (I have another platter, waiting for trimming, that took up the entire surface of the bat. I think it’ll be oribe green, my current fave, and I’m considering iron under decoration, too), but I struggle with height. Of course, this is only my second term (and I spent almost no time on the wheel last term), and I hadn’t touched a wheel since, probably, ’87 or ’88…so I suppose I’m ahead of myself, but it’s still frustrating. High-strung perfectionists are always high-strung perfectionists – I’ve just temporarily transferred my anxiety from paper to clay.

I fear that I’ll still be behind on my assignments, since several mugs have, in some way, committed suicide. (including picking up the bat in the damp room that had two on it – and someone had moved things around, it seems, because one rolled right off the back and out of the covering bag, hitting the floor. Piss.) I have much temptation to take a slightly-long lunch and go in before my dreaded business managers’ meeting this afternoon. Much. Of course, all hell is breaking loose around here. No rest for the wicked.

(and I have a ton of trimming and glazing to do, but that can all be done after tomorrow, when I can’t start any new projects, anyway – only two more classes!)

Oh, and of course I’ve had no time to finish a chart for a friend, or work on my limericks-in-process. I don’t know why I thought my post-surgical recovery would be a ‘break’…I’ve been very good at beginning projects – significantly less adept at finishing them.

We won’t even discuss the microfilm from the BN I should spend quality time with. Not even going there.