things were going so well and then FUBAR

Mornings are in the 80s, the coolest it's gonna be all day so I started the sprinkler rounds and Sunday morning I weeded three small sections (in three different forays) and cut back the gone by elephant garlic blooms and the 3 clumps of tired done blooming spiderwort, cut back more of the purple coneflowers and in about 30 or 40 minutes sweat was just dripping off me.

As noted I only got the mold for the top filled on Friday and Saturday I got the mold for the inlay filled. It took me pretty much all day because I spent a lot of time sifting out the finest particles of the size 'fine' frit of the colors I didn't have in powder form as I wanted to use a combination of frit and powder. Here's the colors in place before I added the white back layer. The pink and purple will turn their true colors during the firing and the green should darken.

So that leaves the mold for the body of the box. I've left it for last because I still hadn't decided what shade and intensity of blue I wanted though I had been leaning to a medium aqua. But Saturday night it occurred to me that maybe a pale blue would be better to set off the colors of the inlay. Anyway, I was determined to decide yesterday as I am ready to finish step 3 of 6 (model making, mold making, filling molds, firing in the kiln, grinding and polishing, fabrication) but when I got over to the studio using my color samples to find a good color I just gave up. I think I need to see the inlay after it's cast and then decide so to that end I brought the inlay mold and the top mold over to go in the kiln.

Aaaaand...the controller on our 22 year old corroded hinge and door falling off kiln won't let Marc change the firing schedule. He thinks it will turn on but there is no way of knowing if it will run through the current program without error. And anyway, the current program is not a good one for these pieces. The program/firing schedule in the controller is what determines how fast or slow the kiln heats and cools and how long it stays at particular temperatures. We have a newer kiln that went haywire 6 years ago and shot up to 2300˚ and quit working. Marc made two attempts to fix it replacing certain parts but no luck so we just have been using the older kiln. The manufacturer is in a town outside Dallas, 5+ hours away and they can do the repair if we drive the newer kiln up there. Before we do that we are trying to see if we can get a used controller to replace the bad one on the old kiln or see if there is someone in Houston that can repair the newer one. So maybe not beyond all repair. All this takes time of course so I doubt I'll be finishing the coral box in time for the anniversary show In October. 

On top of that, my jaw was being wacky and I nipped the inside of my lower lip three times yesterday!

What a fucked up day.

rangoon creeper