the place to be happy is here...

So I may have mentioned that I'm very happy to be working on site where the kiln is ... oh I'm sure I've mentioned it once or twice.   But now that I'm heading toward my first firing since the move, there are a million little ways I am reminded of the importance of staying in place throughout a work cycle.

In this case, a picture speaks many of those ways:

In the foreground are the mugs I'm waxing, preparing to glaze.  If I don't finish them today, I get to keep them right where they are and pick up where I left off.

Above that is the platter I threw yesterday.  Shortly after I started waxing, I noticed that it was at the perfect stage for trimming.  Before my studio move, I probably would have wrapped the platter to make sure it didn't dry out while I was packing boxes of bisque to schlep to the other studio for glazing.  Stop, trim, keep going.

Above that are the demo pots I threw for my new student.  Schedule a student during the days you have to prep for a firing?  Ridiculous!  Not any more - gave her a demo, and while she was working I was laying out bisque to wax and even trimmed that platter.

And above that, under the cute table cloth is the pugger.  I may not actually pug today, but in addition to everything else getting done today, I've got clay drying in the sun that I'll pug up in the next day or two, perhaps as a break from glazing.  I may have laid out clay in the old studio while glazing off site, but odds are it would either stay wet under plastic or dry out too much, having missed the times when it needed to be turned.

I don't always need to nor do I plan to hop around from task to task, but it is an absolute joy to do it today ... because I CAN.  What I've done just to this point today may have been spread over several days before this move, having to choose what to focus on based on where I would be and when.  Including this post!  Now perhaps an afternoon coffee break and then back to the waxing...