I'm back!

Long story short...my mother was very ill and lived with us for a year due to the autoimmune disease, Bullous Phemphigoid. During the time of her care I broke a bone in my foot and crushed another. My poor husband, he had no idea retirement would mean wearing the hat of a nurse. So we've been out of the pottery loop for over a year.

Let's get on with the present. The studio is very near completion. I'll start with pictues of the glaze/kiln room. Let me know what you think!

When firing I roll this shelf in front of the clay shelf and open the overhead door for air circulation.

This corner is where I mix glazes. I needed a place for my shelves and worktop to end so I used this old door!

The electric kilns are on rollers and help save space pushed up against the wall when not in use.  I'm so excited, a gas kiln may be in the near future. Probably shouldn't have even mentioned that yet.

More soon  - I'ts good to be back!

Website is up and going!

I finally decided on a name for the studio: Prairie Star Pottery!

With the help of one of my former students the website is up and going. When you find time let me know what you think.

http://www.prairiestarpottery.com/

My new email address is janice@prairiestarpottery.com

Things are coming together nicely and we will be in full swing shortly. Pictures coming soon!

Who's cussing now!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We hope you each have a wonderful 2010. Thank you for following along so far with this project.

While most people spent yesterday with family and friends, Papa and I worked away at the studio. Some projects went well, and others conjured up curse words.

Other than needing one minor piece of plumbing for the drain, the farmhouse sink has water and is ready to go. Thank you Mark for hauling this monster sink from New York state! Oops, I haven't removed the blue paint tape from the corner.

All along when I (the perfectionist) complain about something that is "off" Huck reminds me this is a pole barn, not a house. Yesterday it was my turn to remind him! The windows (installed by our contractor - who has still not returned to finish the project) are not square and trimming out the windows did not go well. Today we will start over and try a different approach.

Feline News: Bella is our official studio cat! Last Thursday we adopted a 10 month old kitty from the Humane Society. Today I'll take pictures of Bella Blue (Blue Moon last Thursday and Bella from Stephnie Meyer's books - yes, I read every one of them and loved the series - vampires and all!)

-Janice

The Results Are In

These are the samples of paint/glaze on the bead-board. To get things started I've decided to paint the bathroom wall the linen color with brown stain (top right) and paint the baseboard, ceiling trim and bathroom door in the red with brown stain (bottom right.) The cabinet/island unit will be painted black with brown stain (bottom left.) Let me know what you think and I hope this pictures does a good job showing the samples. Thank you for all of your support and encouragement!

-Janice

The shining!

Check out the finish on this floor! After many hours of scrubbing, staining, sealing and waxing, the floor is finally finished. My elbow and shoulder are certainly ready to move on to something different. The bathroom is almost finished, the guttering has been installed, but the to-do list is still very long. We are STILL waiting on the contractor to finish up with the door issues (TIP: Don't pay your bill in full until the job is complete.) I've been playing around with the different stains and paints trying to decide what to do with the bead-board walls. The car siding will be finished with some type of oil and it will change color with age.

I'll close this post with a Merry Christmas and it will be next year before I have time to post again! Thanks for looking, -Janice

To glaze or not to glaze?

I wanted to bring you up to date and share this picture of the inside - WOW! - Huck is doing a fantastic job. He decided to finish the interior walls with "car siding." It's a beautiful knotty pine that is tongue and groove. I want to go over it with a very light taupe color diluted with glaze (you'd still be able to see all of the wood detail) to tone down the overwhelming "yella wood" feeling, but everyone else is of the opinion to clear coat it. I've been insulating and will get finished with that today so he can get all of the siding installed this week and then we can put the trim up and I'll prime and paint the ceiling next weekend. After that we'll finish the other three walls of the glaze room. We need to find someone to mud and tape what little sheetrock we've hung. I found some wallpaper that looks like old fashioned ceiling tin and I'm going to put that behind the old wood stove. We are still undecided what we are going to do about our gas kiln delimna. I did get an email from my Pennsylvania potter friend, Linda Stauffer - http://www.lindastauffer.com Take a look at her new kiln! My brother-in-law should be here soon with the work counter/cabinets. I've put in a call to a guy to polish and seal the floor. Before you know it, it will be time to move all of the equipment to The Studio and start classes. I'd like to thank those of you patiently waiting for classes to start! Later, -Janice

Inside Work

It's been a month since the last time I posted anything on this blog. What a month it has been. Getting the electric work completed was a major undertaking. I don't think Huck has had a single day off since his retirement. He has installed all the plugs and switches and the light fixtures are almost all in. The ceiling (wafer board-one word? two? who cares it's still ugly) is in and needs to be painted. This weekend was the huge arts and crafts festival here in Mound City and it was so cold we built a fire and worked in The Studio all weekend instead of going to the fair, it was warm and cozy (thanks to all of the itchy insulation I installed in the ceiling!) I've included the first pictures of the inside. The bathroom walls are almost finished. Next we can start on the plumbing. There is also a picture of the wood burning stove I found on a trip to Arkansas - it's a jewel. Huck also installed the stove kit and stove pipe so we'd had supplemental heat. We will heat the studio with electric eheat panels - thanks to a great tip from Pennsylvania potter, Linda Stauffer. We also had our annual cookout this weekend. The studio and wood stove made it doable. The guys stayed outside just long enough to cook the hotdogs and back inside to sit around the wood stove and visit. The Grady's Kids art auction is next weekend and I've donated two four week pottery classes - I sure hope someone bids on them! The auction helps Linn County children in need. I'll do a better job of staying current with posting. I'm hoping we'll be ready to open for classes sometime in November.