April Gates - Haliburton Technician

We just received an email from our technician at Haliburton. She is no longer a technician there and I wonder how it will be without her. She was only working part time hours with a full time workload. She managed to stay happy, we could always ask questions and she would take time to answer them, even if they were again about the kiln. She listened to us as a group: we disliked many of the glazes and she managed to get us a blue and some other colours that didn’t look like we were still living in the seventies. She supported us to get longer hours in the studio, gave us demo’s if we wanted and prepared everything for the next teacher to walk in and start classes. Technicians like her are hard to find.

When we were in Haliburton and she was the technician, she didn’t have much time to make pots. Now she has the chance become a self-employed potter.

I am finalizing my order today for materials. I ordered my scale (bd present) and today I prioritized the geek meeting over the guild meeting. I will no longer be a guild member. Everything is in place. This is my chance to become a self-employed potter.

I think I might grab it.

Patience.

My kiln has definitely been testing me. As I am sitting at my parents’ house in the Netherlands, unwrapping the mugs I brought for the whole family I realize that I bought the kiln almost a year ago and it has taken me almost a year to figure it out. Many ruined pots and frustrations but now I am at a point where I understand that the firing process was just going too fast, even if I was going very slow.

When we purchased a brand new kiln this year with our guild, I figured we would be loading, firing and unloading perfect glaze firings from the start. None of that is true. The new kiln needs lots of test firings as well, also fires too fast, even if we fire with the directions from the book that came with it.

As I am having coffee with my brother I realize that he should be on Cortes, figuring things out. He likes that kind of stuff. He wants to fix it and wants to know why things aren’t working the way they should. I don’t have that in me. I just want things to work the way they are suppose to work and otherwise get it fixed. I don’t have the curiosity, or the patience. I just want to throw pots, carve, be in my own space, fire the kiln and sell my pieces to people who love to hold and use them.