Well I see the sun coming up! The sun! This will be the last snowstorm I decree it!! Seriously we are going to have to deal with the mud all over again. Theres also about 3 to 4 feet of snow melting north of us that will make our rivers flow mightily.

There is the spring musical today that has been postponed several times. I will be seeing Camelot today. This will be Lily's last one and she is pretty emo about that. There are mixed emotions, because she is very much looking forward to college this year too. I really will miss her. I will begin my empty nesting, and I feel the time went too fast.

We did okay at the art show yesterday. I wish Bill lived closer we'd have a heck of a band if we could practice with him every week. His work is fabulous too! He's making chandeliers out of clay. And some really cool lamps too out of porcelain. I just love his work. I am thinking of using porcelain for some of my sculptures. Bill will be in the spring tour of the St. Croix Valley potters. He will be at Richard Vincent's studio. I think it is really neat how the artists have gotten together and put on their own shows. Toward the end of our travelling career, The shows had gotten so expensive. The travel had gotten so expensive. Even the biggest shows that cost the most to enter were not as profitable as they once were. It has been a long road like I said yesterday, to retool our efforts .

What really bothered me in the old RH set up, was the mass production aspect of it. I don't hold mass production against anybody, don't get me wrong. I learned a lot from what I call the Rockhard experience. I learned how many items must be sold to make a lot of money on it. When you revv up production quality goes down. In general the higher production, the less control over what comes out, and one loses personal freedom of artistic choice. What that meant to me was feeling locked into one or two slip trail elements that had to be repeated thousands of times. This is hard for me to articulate with out sounding whiney, I think, because we did have a steady paycheck for those 13 years. And because of that I was able to raise my daughter hands on, and homeschool for a few years. But I was concerned about our impact on the environment too. Right from the start the clay comes from a mine somewhere. I feel it's my responsibilty to treat it with respect.

A tremendous amout of fuel was used to fire all those loads, and also a large amount of salt.Not to mention the fuel expenses driving the big truck. I was concerned about my impact on the environment. We fire with wood now, and use very little salt. Our slip and glaze recipies are simple and non toxic when fired in the stoneware temperatures. I get to take my time with each piece of pottery I slip trail, and each sculpture I do for the sheer love of it not because I have to pump them out.

So the chamges that have come about have been steps toward sustainable potting. Paul did start giving classes two years ago, and that has led to several opportunities. We are guests at some studio tours, and we try to get into one or two close shows. Now the paychecks aren't as steady, but we did not crash and burn when we took our leap of faith five years ago. I think we are making the best work of our lives, and enjoying the clay experience much more , boosting sales is always a goal, but we don't really need that much to survive. And finally I am giving myself the time to work on my sculptures, so I'd better get down to the studio. !