'the swine' and grading interrupts everything!

My first week that I kept track of studio time I spent about 10 1/2 hrs making pots!  So I was planning on kicking major butt last week in a similar fashion, but about 5 kids from each of my classes were out with either H1N1 or the regular flu. Talk about crappy timing.  Which in turn got a TON of teachers sick and made me have sympathy sickness.  (never having a fever, which is okay by me!)  Plus I had to grade a ridiculous amount of work, so alas, no studio time.  I did find a few minutes to fire a small load of pots...

I'm still testing the dots.  The first 4 came out looking nice but if you handled them the dots fell off :-(  I think I just added them when the pots were too dry because this load is better.  

I'm also working on testing close to 20 cone 10 glazes. Which has made me realize how much I suck at and/or dislike glazing.  In college I borrowed a lot of glazes from Grad friends, but without really recording what I used (beyond just the names) I'm pretty much at square one.  Not to mention that I have no access to a soda kiln which makes me sad for when I make large work again. I should be firing student work soon so I'll be able to test them out in the gas kiln but time will tell if anything actually looks good.  --If you have some sweet glazes or ones I probably used on work previously, feel free to share!--   I'm starting to think about cone 6 glazes, but I'm not sure where to start. I guess more research in my little spare time.

This week will probably be spending some time on detail for a damp box worth of pieces I still need to finish. Plus I want to start teaching my Advanced students how to throw larger forms in sections (they're diggin my big work & want to watch how it's possible).  I'll post some pics of my progress- goal is about a post a week to make sure I'm doing something!