Cart before the horse, or work before the permits.

Moving from the city of Edmonton with a metro population of over 1,000,000,000 to the village of Coutts with about 350 people, we might encounter a few differences. I was talking to the lady at my Edmonton bank the other day and told her we were moving and the population was 350. She thought for a moment then said "350,000 is a good sized city". She never considered only 350 people.

In August we went down to look a place we didn't buy and ran into our soon to be neighbour, but didn't know that at the time. We knew owners of the place we not home and we could only look at the outside, but we wanted to see the town as well. We chatted briefly with the neighbour, told him why we were there and he said he know a lady that had a key and he could let us in. This house had been rented and the renter had just moved out. The renter and owner had not had their walk threw, the owner didn't know we were there and had not given permission to go in and we just said no, there we too many liability issues. "You guys must be from the city, we don't worry about things like that here" said the neighbour.

Later we got the lot I talked about in the last blog and as soon as we got our development permit, we sent all the information off to Lethbridge last Friday for the  building permits. They said it would take at least a week for all the permits to land. We talked to our contractor told him what we were doing and would send those permits out as soon as we got them and they could get to work. Winter is coming we wanted to move ahead as soon as possible. I got a panicked phone call the following Monday afternoon, I had not answered the contractors email he had sent that morning. He had the place landscaped and wanted to know where the water was going to come in so they could trench.. That was moving ahead fairly quickly. We are from the city and we do things differently.  In small towns it must be the commutative law of building. It doesn't matter what order the building and permits come in as long as the end of the day you have construction and permits.

This is Monday morning waiting for permits.

We are going down early tomorrow to finish, or work on, trimming the trees and bushes. We will meet the contractor and lay in the  electric cable. All this work and more has been done without us there, it's hard to stay home and work when all the action is going on at the new house. By the end of the month we should have house and lot together, but then we have to come back to Edmonton for November and work.

I am looking forward to going, seeing the work that is done, cutting some more trees and trying out our latest new toy, the hedge trimmer. 

Until next time.

AKA Mrs. Clay

Finding my yard.

We finally got our lot.  The lawyer hasn't sent the title yet, these things take time.We haven't got the building permit yet, I know, these thing take time. With no building permit, there is no electrical, pluming or gas permits. No permits means we can't start anything to do with building so we can't set a date with the company to move our modular. Winter is on the way.... tick tick.... fWe went down for a half day to meet the concrete guy start cleaning up the yard a bit.  The lady who sold me the lot said it was nicely treed.  It was closer to impenetrable forest.  It has been years since anyone has done anything. There was a corner where the back of the house will go that was solid bush. There was a beautiful huge double spruce hiding in a mess of willows and carrageenan. Here is a before picture.

 After about 3 hours with our new little chainsaw and some bush removed out corner looked a bit better, but there is still a whole lotta bush to take out of there.  Jim took the picture of the pile.I sure didn't do all that on my own. We took turns cutting and dragging the branches out of the way. It was fun! It was doing something besides hurry up and wait. It is a nice big lot, you can see the more tame back end behind me.  The property ends at about the farthest tree.

And here it is after the first of many hair cuts.

I simply love that beautiful old tree.  The truck is about three feet in diameter. I have a few plans about what I want to do with that wonderful old  tree but I will talk about that later. The modular will sit in all that all tall grass, but the grass will go away. 

I had gotten some girly work gloves for the day, but they weren't made for what we were doing.  Here is the right hand after just a few hours. When we go back I will get some real work gloves.

We took this one just for fun.  The chainsaw is battery operated and has a 12 inch saw. Not too scary but a great little machine. It really did the job. 

Now we wait and wait for permits and other people to put our life on their schedule. I really don't like having to wait for others to do what I want them to do.  It is unfortunate that the the lot is six hours from here. We would do more to make the yard tidy, but it is hard running back and forth and we have things we have to get done here in Edmonton.  This summer we have put over 13,000 kilometers on the vehicle and we are far from done. 

I'm not sure how we are going to dispose of our pile of branches and it it just the first of many. Since the pile is six hours away, I will not solve that problem tonight. 

Until next time. 

AKA Mrs. Clay

Free Clay Workshops for Everyone

A year and a half ago we put together complete clay sculpting craft kits.  They had clay, paints, brushes, everything needed to make two complete clay sculptures.  The kit also included a 40 minute instructional DVD on how to make the piece step by step. We sold a few, but sales were not what we had expected or hoped.  So..... now the workshops are free on Youtube. The kits are still available, if someone watches on Youtube, they still need the supplies, but we want the knowledge there for everyone.

We have seven workshops available and we will be constantly adding more starting in January. We are trying to move to Coutts AB, but like most things in life, it is taking longer and costing more than we ever thought possible. We plan to be settled the end of December. When we get settled we will turn one bedroom into a production studio. Not only will we be creating a series of workshops aimed at a younger audience, we will be sharing everything we  have learned over the years as production potters and artists.

We may be retiring from in the classroom workshops, but we are far from quitting work. We are excited about building the channel and sharing everything we can think of that is clay related. We want clay in the hands of students  from all over and not just here in Edmonton. We want Every Day to be Clay Day!

Please have a look at the channel.  If there is something that you would like to see in a lesson on our channel, let us know. 

Until next time.

AKA

Mrs. Clay

More about not firing decorative clay pieces. A repost from January 16th 2012

More about Air Dry Clay.

We are in our second year of offering Air Dry Workshops. Teachers that booked Air Dry workshops last year are doing the same again this year. We do more Air Dry workshops than the fired ones. Teachers that have booked us fired first then Air Dry, always rebook Air Dry. When we are at a trade show, everything in our booth is Air Dry and we never fire anything before painting. All sample pieces we do as The Clay Teacher are not fired. Houses are made from unfired clay. Entire towns are made out of unfired clay from the Adobes in the South West, to Africa, Israel and India

One such dwelling is the "Musgum clay house". Named after its creators, the Musgum, an ethnic group in the far north province in Cameroon. The house is created from compressed sun-dried clay.

San Miguel Chapel, Sante Fe, New Mexico is the oldest church structure in the US. Original adobe walls built in approximately 1610 AD.

When making projects with the Air Dry method, you have to be familiar with clay and know how to work with it in order to have success. If the projects are made properly, you will not have problems with them later. When you follow the instructions of The Clay Teacher and the DVDs all pieces are sturdy and will last as San Miguel Chapel, unless dropped of course, then all fired or unfired clay will break.

When students make something out of clay and paint it, it is notpottery,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery it is only decorative or sculpture,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture. The pieces are not intended to be used in the kitchen as pottery, so there is no reason to finish them as a piece of pottery. However, the Air Dry method creates a very sturdy project.

Here is a little dish we put through the rinse cycle in the dishwasher. We sure do NOT recommend dishwasher safe, but it certainly survived and we still have it.

Taking the kiln out of the picture opens up clay to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Every day is Clay Day!

Until the next time.

Cindy

What is Air Dry Clay? (A repost from June 19, 2011)

I have been playing around with different clay bodies to see what ones work best with the air dry method and painting with acrylic paint. We use Plainsman Clay and in the class room we always use Buffstone. It is very good clay for schools. It has a low shrinkage rate, it’s economical and the light grey colour doesn't stain hands or clothes. Buffstone dries very hard and it is easy to work with. I made a sample project with M370 and the M390. Those clays shrink a lot more when they dry and are not as forgiving as the Buffstone in the drying process, but after all the samples were painted, you can't tell one from the other in look or feel.

Everyone thinks that clay has to be fired. Everything that you make out of clay has to be put into a kiln and kept forever. I hear all the time that someone made a little something in school out of clay and their mom still has it or they still have it. Clay is seen as this mystery substance that you get to work with once or twice in your childhood, the firing process, well that certainly is not for the faint of heart. Everything that is made is priceless and must be kept forever.

How many pictures does a child draw in their school years? How many cut and paste “somethings” are made and as soon as they are off the wall they go into the recycle? It is making the piece, learning to use the pencil, the glue, and the crayons, that is the fun. Like everything else, the more work they do, the better the work gets. If clay gets into the classroom and is used like cut and paste, or pencil crayons, just think what the kids could do after years of clay experience in school. If all the focus goes off the end project and goes to learning how to work with the medium, clay looses it mystic and awe and gets back into the hands of children where it should be. For about a dollar, a student can have enough clay to make just about any project they like. If they don’t like it, roll it up and start over. If the clay gets dry, add water and use it again.

No, a piece of clay that is not fired is not a sturdy as a fired piece. However, both are very hard. If you drop either one, they will break, and both will last for years as a decoration. The big difference between fired student work and air dried student work, is that with air dry, all you need is a ball of clay and a willing student. The fired piece is a bit more of a challenge.

So what is “Air Dry Clay”……….. clay that is not wet anymore.

Until the next time.

AKA Mrs.  Clay

And now for something completely different!

The Clay Teacher is making changes.We have been presenting clay workshops in the Edmonton area for the past four years.  Now we offer you clay workshops on Youtube for free. Mr. and Mrs. Clay have retired from presenting workshops and now we are making our workshops available to everyone.  You, a teacher' or PAC groups can lead the workshop yourself. We show you how to lead your group through making a clay project, whenever and wherever you want.  The Clay Teacher offers free video instruction in popular projects for all age groups. We will be creating new workshops and if there is something you would like to see, ask and we will have it on Youtube as quickly as we can.

We are moving to Coutts AB where life is slow and the weather is warm. Where is Coutts you ask?  It is a small town as far south in Alberta as you can go and one of the busiest Canada - US border crossings in Western Canada.

We have put over 7,000 kilometers on the car driving around Southern Alberta looking for the right place to call home. Wednesday we are going south.....again....to look at lots..  I always call them city lots, but with about 280 people living there, it's not quite a city. We will purchase the lot, then build a pad for our modular home will purchase Friday or Monday.  We thought we had our new home all lined up right up until we didn't. But the new modular home is nicer than the first one.  Not nicer now, but after a bit of work it will be. We had purchased a bunch of flooring to fix up the first one, and then the deal fell through, so we have a garage full of flooring and no trailer. Then found a place online for sale and it is a modular and not a mobile. A 76' long 16' wide modular that has no flooring.  A perfect match.  Here are some before pictures. 

    

 

I am looking forward to having time to soak in that tub. I like to play "tea bag".

The local school district closed the school in Coutts and the village (not the city) has taken it over. They have built a public library, and the Coutts Recreation and Arts Society. The Society was formed to operate the School as a Community Centre. We will be working with them to set up a public pottery studio in their art room. A win win for all involved.We will get a large and wonderful studio and they will have access to all our equipment and knowledge. We plan to build a great facility and are very excited about it. 

We have three bedrooms in our new home.  We will be turning one into the production studio where we will do all our own video. We have all  the equipment and we are ready to go.  Well, maybe not quite ready to shoot just yet! Here is a shot of the room.  It needs some work,(Paint!) besides a village lot to go to. 

 That pink was so loud, we heard it while walking down the hall. 

We had a great time as Mr. and Mrs. Clay. We will still be Mr. and Mrs. Clay on video instead of in person. As soon as we are up and running we will be constantly adding to our Youtube channel.  If there is a lesson you would like to see, ask us and we get it on line as soon as we can. Please let others know about the channel. We want to make every day Clay Day!

Until next time.

AKA Mrs. Clay

AKA 

What I did on my summer holiday.

The summer has flown by.  We didn't get the shooting done or our trip to New Mexico.  After school was out, we just kinda crashed. I did spend time in the studio.  I made lots of pots and some fun things. We had a great sale at Folk Fest, it was our best show ever.  It is nice not to have schedule and work when you want and make what you like. It was not an overly busy summer, but I have enjoyed so far.  We have eaten to much and had a few to many summer beers on a hot day, but hey..... that's what summer is about.

 These are some of the fun things I made.

 

I tried to build a new blog site using Word Press.  This old dog is not that speedy when it comes to learning  learning new tricks. It's coming, but I have let it slide a bit these last few weeks.  I have it built, but it is not quite ready for prime time.

We are hoping to change The Clay Teacher this year so it is not quite so much work. There are a few things in the works and when I know more I will talk about it.


Today I will finishing throwing the dinner set orders I got a Folk Fest.

Until next time.

AKA Mrs. Clay