What are you working on this week? I'm all ceramics and yarn this week...
In ceramics, it would almost take less time to tell you what I'm *not* working on! I've started playing around with the form I'm going to try out for the April mug... I'm still playing with trays and plates from those slump molds That Poor Man cut for me the other week... I've had a glaze firing, a test tile firing, and am loading up the kiln for another glaze firing (hopefully tomorrow).
I finally "finished" the new knitting/crocheting mugs... and I use that term loosely because hahahahahaha I have to redo them all. Problem 1: I realized when putting the decals on that while I had meant to glaze two of each style in blue, in yellow, and in pink... I wound up doing four of the knitting mugs in blue and four of the crochet mugs in yellow, so the only one with both styles is pink.... of which I had broken one taking it out of the kiln. Sigh. Problem 2: I realized when putting the decals on that while this is my favorite form for mugs, sort of an hourglass shape, it's terrible for decals, because there is too much surface change for the decal paper to get a good grip without wrinkling. Wrinkling, of course, messes up the decal, so some of the words look a little distorted or are missing parts of letters where the decal paper couldn't grip onto the ceramic. Sigh. Problem 3: the yellow glaze, probably my favorite of the blue/pink/yellow combo, didn't like the decals AT ALL, perhaps because it is a slightly matte glaze, and much of the decal on the yellow ones have rubbed off. UGH. So. I can fix Problem 1 by paying better attention next time I glaze. I can fix Problem 2 by making them a different shape. I can fix Problem 3 by using a different glaze. Meanwhile, I have... eleven mugs I don't know what to do with. I suppose I could hold them until the Florida Fiber-In in September, and put them on a sale shelf, but.... just ugh. Maybe as I rethink the form, I can rethink the right/left-handedness of the mugs - more putting the decal on one side and the button on another, or something. I don't know. I'm so disgusted with these mugs right now I don't even want to look at them! I feel like a parent who has been disappointed by their sullen teenager! These mugs just do not want to work out for me.
Let's see.... what else? I was going to have some new Marie bowls this week, but didn't like how the glaze worked out, so while I have two more I can glaze in (hopefully ) better colors, I need to make at least one more so that I have three. So those will be a couple more weeks in being ready. ... ... I thought I was making new Vivi mugs, but grabbed the wrong doily, so what's in the kiln now are actually Grace mugs, not Vivi mugs. Not a big deal to anyone else but me, probably. ... ... ... Back to the drawing board *again* with the pizza plates, which didn't work THIS TIME because while I had set things in the middle to keep the middle from warping up while drying, they confounded me by warping up on the sides. Overall I'm happy with the size and shape of them, I just have to figure out how to keep them from warping. So those won't be out this week, either. ... ... ... Huh. Seems like I'm having one of those weeks where it's a good thing I love my job because not a lot is going right!
In yarn, I dyed yarn all last week and am working on it this week as well. I'll have a few restocks - mostly Ashes to Ashes - as soon as I can get everything wound (tomorrow, maybe? Friday?). And then next week I'll dye the last of any When Doves Cry pre-orders, and I'll release a limited number of them on the 31st. Man, this month is flying past!
OK... that's about it for me right now. What about y'all? What are you working on?