SHINO recipe in a washed out notebook

Every time I go to mix up glazes I am reminded of the numerous floods we experienced a year ago and how my studio was devastated every one of those times. Why do I remember this? Every single one of my notebooks were washed clean of their writings and drawings. Its a strange thing to have a sketchbook washed clean, there is ghosting everywhere yet in most cases there is no legible image. I don't know why I keep reaching for that glaze recipe that is not there. I am upset every time it happens, today was no different. Time to move on. I am fixing the problem. This firing my work will sport a new recipe. I am hoping I am not disappointed.

I have been an avid fan of the HBO series Treme. Each time I see those images of the mold stained paint peeling washed out walls I am reminded of two things, one the Larry Towel exhibition "In the Wake of Katrina" I saw at the Eastman house in Rochester a few years ago and my sketchbooks. I can't really relate to the magnitude of devastation but I can totally relate on a small scale to the disruption, loss and violation that must of been felt. I am writing about this tonight because I just came home from a party and we were supposed to have shrimp, but they never made it past the kitchen. This made me think about this comment I heard the other day about the injustice of the shrimp gouging that has been going on. Heck, if I knew that what I was hauling now was going to be the "LAST" time before having to find a new livelihood, I might hold out too.

I am firing in a few days. I always anticipating being exhausted, but this time I know I will be because I am exhausted before I even set that fist pot in the kiln. Yet, like every time I do fire, I am so excited. I wonder what my work will look like. This time I am using what is left of my palette, no new glazes (except the shino). The more I do this the more I learn about what my glazes are capable of. I have maybe 3 more firings with these glazes and then I have to either recall the recipes or start the process of exploration again. Its like spring cleaning and tossing it all.

Tomorrow's adventures - glazing the rest of my work, picking up my new dress, lunch, hanging out, and closet shopping!