Hurricane Season is Upon Us.

Today, mandatory evacuations have been called for Jefferson County, where I live. Hurricane Gustav is scaring the city officials and they don't want anything bad to happen like what did with Rita and Katrina. I spent four hours yesterday looking for a hotel space that was animal friendly to large dogs. It is amazing how little are. I was glad to hear tho that every single Inn I called in La Grange accepted dogs of all sizes, and count. They were the nicest out of all the places I called yesterday. I figure I went through about 2-300 hotels in my search.

But, we gave up. We decided to stay. It is what I originally wanted to do anyway- This hurricane is nothing. It will dissipate by the time it hits here and will be a Cat 1 or a tropical storm, at least I hope.

This is a blog about ceramics right, and you're probably thinking... where is the talk about ceramics? Whats will all this hurricane crap???? Well- The hurricane has already affected my plans for this weekend, lol. I was up at campus on Friday, throwing, and they closed campus. I was the last person in the Art Department, minus the security guard kicking me out.

So far this semester, I have thrown 5 raw mugs. By raw, I mean they are pretty unrefined, not much thought in them at all. The first 5 have been trimmed and have handles, I started on five more Friday. This next batch will be much better, in terms of form. I ended up making pieces for two goblets, as well as a pretty nice bowl and an old fashion milk jug. I am attempting to balance out the small things and the big things. I want to have a large amount of items this semester, but I want it to be of various sizes this time. Usually I'll stick with one thing or about one general size of items. I tend to stick with between 1-4lbs of clay on the wheel.

So what I anticipate doing when I prepare for the wheel is to make my balls of clay of various sizes. I found that getting all your balls of clay ready before getting on the wheel makes throwing that much more enjoyable. If you have a mass of clay sitting, ready to be used, you don't worry to much about what you're throwing. Instead, it allows you to be more open with the piece and not so closed down on what it HAS to be. If I mess up, I just throw the clay into a pile. By the end of the session, I'll have 4-8 lbs of clay stacked up from scraps which in turn I knead and throw. I figure the more I mess up, the larger I have to try and throw something.

Class is canceled until Wednesday at least, which affects me because I was anticipating going to campus and working this weekend, and Labor Day. But oh well, I have some Raku in the garage I need to do something with.