#audra smith

[getoutofthisplace]

Dear Gus & Magnus,

Usually when I go to events for work, I'm part of the behind-the-scenes crew, but today and tomorrow I'm in Frisco as a participant in a professional development class.

I've been hit with allergies hard this year, which is especially unfortunate right now because we're in the thick of making videos for owners meeting next week and I have a lot of voiceover work to do, but every time I talk, I sound sick. I'm doing all I can to get over it quickly, including not drinking alcohol.

I like testing my self-discipline, I like saving the money I would've spent on alcohol, and I like waking up with a clear head. I have also been hoping that not drinking would result in me losing some weight, but I've been at this for nine days and when I got on the scale at home yesterday, I weighed 198.6, which is the most I've weighed this year other than on March 8 when I clocked in at 199. Perhaps this is just life at 40 years old.

Dad.

Frisco, Texas. 5.11.2018 - 7.05pm.

[bigboxcar]

Mugshot Monday - “Orange Geometric Shape” coffee mug by Audra Smith with Snowshoe Seasonal Blend by Peace Coffee

Last weekend I took my first ever kiln class at Northern Clay Center-- "THE HOT SEAT - KILN FIRING 101″.

The class is split into a morning class for gas kilns and an afternoon class for electric kilns. Audra Smith, a staff member at Northern Clay Center since 2010 and a resident artist, taught the gas kiln class.

I don’t really have a plan to fire kilns anytime soon, but I felt the need to understand the process better. The bisque and glaze firings are all done for us students at Northern Clay, so it’s kind of an unknown magical part of ceramics for me.

What became very clear by the end of the day is that gas firing is a lot more complicated than electric firing.

We learned about reduction and oxidation and the intricacies of getting the temp up to ~2300º (Cone 10) so the kiln “does” what it’s supposed to “do” to the clay body and the glaze at different temps.

We learned there are LOTS OF DIFFERENT DECISIONS you have to make during the 2+ days of the firing so that everything will turn out awesome.

But Audra emphasized that we’ll all learn through trial and error and not to sweat it.

Someone in the class asked Audra about firing her own work and if she stressed out about it more when her own pots were in the kiln.

“No, I actually don’t mess around with gas kilns for my own stuff. It all does great in the electric kilns. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy my job and working these kilns, but I don’t have the patience to do this with my own work.”

Ha! I LOVE that. Here is an artist with such a deep understanding of gas kilns, but she uses an electric kiln because it’s perfect. It was at that moment I knew I needed to have one of Audra’s mugs. 

I’m really glad I got one, too. She’s currently moving on to some new designs and I really like these mugs with geometric shapes a lot. It sounded like she won’t be making any more of them.

Thanks so much for the mug, Audra! And thanks for sharing your knowledge at class. I learned a ton. Cheers! ☕️💥😀

See also my 500+ photos from the Mugshot Monday project here: www.MugshotMonday.com – Every Mug Has A Story