April 18

I had a nice day today.  I went into the studio at seven thirty and Mr. Mogilnicki turned the little kiln on.  It got all the way up into the two thousand degree area today, and it’s going to plug away like that overnight.  Everything is going to be cool enough to take out on Monday, so that’s going to be something to look forward to.  I also threw six drinking vessels today, which are somewhere between cups and tumblers.  They’re a little shorter than I was thinking I’d like them to be, but I think they look really nice all together.  I’ll be able to trim them tomorrow morning.

            Mr. Barmonde also showed me how to make a candleholder today, so I’m going to try to make two or three of those tomorrow.  Maybe I should make four.  They’re going to have tiny little blind contours on them. 

            I can’t believe I’ve already been working on this project for three weeks!  Time is going by so quickly. 

            After school today I met a couple of my friends in New Bedford and we went to No Problemo for dinner.   We saw Mr. Mogilnicki eating there too!  I had a burrito with plantains.  It was really delicious.  Then we went to this little vintage store called the artificial marketplace.  They have a lot of really cool furniture and clothing and all that good old vintage stuff.  The other day I was in there and there was a really cool Heywood-Wakefield end table that was pretty cheap but I didn’t get it, and I totally should have.  It’s always fun to spot things like that in antique stores, though.

            They have some cool mugs there sometimes, too.  I always feel kind of guilty buying ceramic dishware because I feel like I should be able to make it myself, but some things are just so nice that you can’t pass up on them.  It’s fun to go into little vintage stores like that and get inspired.  And in stores like terrain.  I feel like it’s so easy to get inspired when you’re thinking about pottery, because so many people have such amazing ideas that you can draw from.  Potters and ceramic sculptors have to be really innovative to be original, and so much of what’s out there is just jaw dropping-ly innovative and cool.  You’re like, ugh! why didn’t I think of that!