Veggie Rotation

I’ve been working on an idea for a compost container for a while.  I’ve wanted one for a while and since the cheapest one I could find that I liked was about 100 dollars, I decided to make one myself.  I started by deciding on what kind of materials to use.  I thought I would use galvanized pipe for the frame, but when I looked into it using galvanized pipe would cost all most as much as buying a new composter.   I built a 3-D sketch in a free program called Google Sketch-Up, and instead of using galvanized pipe I made the frame out of two by fours.  I made the part that I would use to rotate the compost barrel out of galvanized pipe and some more wood.  

Today I started making the frame to the compost rotator; I took apart the entry way to the hoop house that I had made last year for the wood to make the new frame.  Here is a picture of the frame before I connected the two sides together.

I forgot to take pictures of anything before this point, but you didn’t miss out on much just a little bit of confusion as I tried to figure out what angles I needed to make this frame stand up.  Which it did eventually, as you can see here.

And here is a side view; from this angle you can see where I added some support at the top.  This is where the galvanized pipe will slid through and pivot the barrel.  Later I will drill holes through here, so that I can pass the ¾ inch pipe through and into the barrel.  I hope to finish this by this Friday, and have more pictures of it by Saturday.  I really look forward to composting all the vegetation that we go through in this house.

On another note I took a shovel and turned over our garden today as well.  I think the compost I got last year from the city has finally broken down completely; I will add some more compost and amendments to the soil before I plant this year in hopes of having a (more) productive garden this year.

Work II: The Return of WIP…

I thought I’d keep the artistic ball rolling this week so I headed back into the studio to make some new work.  I made some vessels that I have been thinking about for a while; here is a picture of what I threw last weekend. 

I also threw some large bowls last October that have been hanging around the studio so I thought I would put them to use.  I decided to make them into wall plates, so last weekend I threw a foot ring on a few of them.  Here is a picture of one after the foot ring was added, you cannot see it very well but trust me it’s there.

When I went out to the studio today I threw a rim onto the same bowls to give them a little more presence.  Here’s one of them with the rim freshly thrown.

I threw all of the new work (and the bowls) out of Rod’s Bod, a stoneware clay that I love.  It has a lot of iron in it, which caused some beautiful iron spotting with most glazes.  But since I want to add this work to the work I showed you last week I needed a white(ish) surface to draw on.  Since Rod’s Bod turns a nutty light brown when left unglazed I needed to add a slip to turn it white.  I used a slip made from B-Mix (cone 10, another clay I use a lot), which is what I used to make the set of pots that you saw in the last post.  It turns a really nice white, but without all the technical difficulties of a Porcelain clay body.  So I gave these new vessels a coat of B-Mix, let them dry and then gave them another coat.  By the looks of them I will have to let them dry overnight and give them another coat or two tomorrow when I get off of work.  Here is a picture of them after they were slipped, you can see they look whiter, but what you cannot see are the thin spots left from the brush strokes which will be resolved tomorrow (the bowls haven't been slipped yet the rims were still wet). 

I’m hoping that they will be dry enough for Keturah to add handles to them on Sunday.  That way they can start the long, slow drying process so they won’t crack or fall apart on me.