Perigee Moon

Last weekend was a "super moon."  The moon orbits around the earth in a slightly eccentric circle, resulting in it being a little closer sometimes than at other times.  When it's closest, it's called perigee. So anyway, I heard from friends at pottery on Saturday that Reid State Park would be staying open late in order for people to have a good site from which to view it.  So Rick and I decided to take a trip down to get some photos.  We went to JT Maxwell's in Bath for dinner beforehand, and then arrived at Reid about 8:00.  I wish we'd gotten there earlier, as the moon was rising, because that's when it was at it's most impressive.  It didn't look much different than usual by the time it was high in the sky.  However, I wanted to get some photos so that's what we did.

I wanted to get some classic moon photos - where it appears someone is holding it or whatever.  Rick was very cooperative - move a little to the right, back to the left, up a little bit, hold it right there!  click.  It was much more difficult than I'd imagined to get the angle and the spacing of the fingers, etc. just right.  But I was fairly happy with the results.

Step one - lining it up.

A little closer . . .

Ooops - too far to the left . . .

A little frustration creeps in . . .

Voila!  Close as we could get.

Pottery Notes: Sunday, March 13, 2011

I've been having fun with underglazes and carvings this weekend.

Here's a piece that's ready to go into a glaze firing.  The outside is done in various color underglazes and the inside is a glaze called Blue Rutile, even though it looks red unfired.

I had planned to go to The Liberal Cup with Rick for a performance of the NitPickers but I decided at the last minute to stay home and play with clay.  Three hours of bluegrass would have been great, but the three hours it takes for set up and breakdown gets a bit tedious.  I made a cover for a bowl I'd made a few days ago.

Tuesday at home

I decided to take a personal day after all the overtime I'd been putting in getting ready for legislative hearings on the budget yesterday.  We had a good turnout - maybe 200 people at the rally and at least 8 clients testified at the hearings.

Betty w/Maine Can Do Better sign, and Tammy in red.  

So today I rearranged the studio, moving the bed over into the corner and bringing the weight bench out where it can be more easily used, swept and washed the floor, glazed three pots, and then made lasagna for dinner.

A lot more room to get around.  

I moved the bed from behind the sofa to the corner.  

I also put in an order to Big Ceramic Store online: several glazes and underglazes, kiln posts and stilts, a pair of tinted glasses to look into the kiln holes, etc.  Oh yes, and a box of Cone 8 to use in my next glaze firing. I'm hoping if I want to get to Cone 5, if I used a Cone 8 in the kiln sitter, it will get to temperature.