I Need A Clone!!

Yes I do need a clone! I have to finish painting the house, I have to sort out the jungle in the backyard and I need to get my small business up and running! Plus..... Just do all the other regular things that we all have to do! My brain isn't content with organising itself like a normal brain, it likes to grab a whole bunch of ideas and then it says "let do this!" When it isn't physically possible! Okay, so for the sanity of both myself and my wife, the painting will be finished first. If it isn't, horrible things may happen to me.... lol The garden, I am figuring can be done intermittently between sorting out my small work from home business.

When I was a kid I used to attend hobby ceramics classes, I just loved it! The other kids would attend the class, like me one afternoon a week after school. The only difference between me and the other kids was that, I would work on my pieces on the weekends. I constantly had more than one piece on the go at any given time. Then I got older, moved out of home and had 'grown up' things to do.

My brand spanking new studio size kiln.

Anyway about two years ago, I decided that I wanted to get back into ceramics and I took some more classes. Unfortunately my work roster changed and I could no longer attend the classes, as they were held during the day. I was stuck.... I wanted to continue working with ceramics, but I was unable to do so due to work. So I looked into buying my own kiln.... the second hand ones were appealing - simply due to cost. But there was no guarantee that the previous owner hadn't fired lead based glazes in them. So I started looking at new kilns.... holy moley they were expensive!!!! 

The kiln being loaded.

The other issue I had was, that I had actually never fired a kiln before! I actually knew nothing about them. So my research begun..... Everything I read stated that if you're going to buy a kiln, buy one bigger than what you think you need. So I looked at new kilns and picked the one I thought would suit me, and then did as I was told and looked at the next size up. This was getting dearer by the minute lol How on earth could I justify spending thousands of dollars on a kiln for a hobby? Plus, I would have to take out a loan, as I just didn't have that kind of money lying around. It was also around this time I was becoming increasingly miserable at work.

A Merlin/wizard tile - trivet.

In the past people had requested particular items, which I made and sold to them. Other friends had also told me that they believed that there was a market out there for my work, as it was a little bit different to the usual ceramic ware available. So this - combined with my unhappiness at work got me thinking.... What if I could earn a living from doing this? I spoke to my wife about my idea, she knew how I was feeling at work and she also knew that I wanted to continue with my ceramic work. So we looked at the prices of the kilns and decided to purchase one. When you purchase a kiln they are made to order, so you need to be prepared to join a waiting list.

Some Halloween coasters.

When it was my turn for my kiln to be built, my Aunt was diagnosed with cancer, so I requested that I be dropped back down the list. Then my Aunt's treatment seemed to be working, so I advised the kiln builders I was ready. This scenario actually happened three times..... Then one day I was able to take possession of the kiln. I started buying stock, and building up a collection that I could sell. I had almost gotten to a point where I had enough stock, until one day I noticed that most of my pieces had cracked!!!

A platter of four condiment bowls.

I had no idea what had happened, as I inspect all of the pieces when I take them out of the kiln. After doing some research online, I discovered that there could only be two reasons for this happening. The first was the temperature in the kiln and the second was the glaze. I checked the kiln temperature and it was correct. So I spoke to a company who sells glazes, and before I had finished explaining what had happened, the guy knew what was wrong. I had been sold a glaze that was not compatible with Australian clay, yet it was widely distributed.... I was told that the glaze doesn't crack immediately and that it actually takes a couple of weeks for the cracks to appear.

An experimental four-way glazes vase.

So where did that leave me? Well I am now pretty much starting from scratch. I still have a lot of stock that I have not painted, but all of the stock that I had painted, needs to be broken and put into the garbage as it is no longer food safe. I also purchased new glaze that is compatible with Australian clay. I guess the up side to this incident is that, these items weren't sold. As the glaze would've cracked after the sale, leaving the owner with an inferior product and me with a bad reputation.

A collection from my last firing with the new glaze.

As my wife is on holidays in a couple of weeks, the house painting will be finished (thank god!) and then I will be able to get back to my ceramics and start building up enough items to sell. I already have a domain name, however the website isn't live yet - due to not having enough stock to list. I do however have a Facebook page set up:- Crack Pot Ceramics. Once my website is live, it will also be connected to this Facebook page. 

My Crack Pot Ceramics Facebook page.

It's all very exciting, but quite daunting at the same time! I am very much looking forward to being able to spend my time time doing what I love, and that is to paint. I'm just not really looking forward to the 'business' side of things as I don't have a 'business head' lol This is where a clone would come in handy, I could paint and he could take care of the stock, marketing, money, ordering etc lol