We built a nice 2 story gambrel roofed garage and I took the upstairs as my studio, hauling and setting up a concrete kick wheel and long tables. Masks were placed on the wall along with a paper describing their place in the series. These were the works based on Jon’s story, the nurses, doctors and fellow patients at the brain injury rehabilitation hospital.
Then my father decided to sell all of his wood working tools. He was living in Missouri and planned to move to California. So a friend and I drove a car down to Missouri and rented a big truck and loaded all of Dad’s tools up and paid him $1500. he was happy and we were happy. Dad had all the kinds of tools that I did not, so now I had a nice wood working studio.
In the ceramic studio I faced a problem: my discs were getting softer and I had bone spurs on top of my arthritis. The kick wheel got used mostly in detailing hand built sculptures and I knew I could not throw pots without hurting my back. I needed a slab roller. Finally on CraigsList we found an excellent Bailey slab roller, manual and in pristine condition. I began to make functional ware by making some plaster molds and using them to make serving dishes and bowls. I found a very nice pugmill for sale on CraigsList and added that to the equipment. By now all the tools were downstairs in one bay so I started using the upstairs for storage and the west side of the garage for ceramics. I built a divider wall and put in a door. The east side was crowded with wood tools and wood slabs. I have acquired four kiln burners which fire propane and will add one or two to my noborigama in the shed outside. The reminder burners (I hope) will be used to build a smaller down draft kiln on top of the bonfire pit. Then I will have two mixed fuel kilns, one computer controlled electric kiln, one old electric top loader kiln, and enough bricks left over to build pits and such for low fire work. By now I have also added a very clean electric throwing wheel so that Margaret or any student I get in the future can try their hand at throwing. Now we need Spring to happen.