Yesterday when I wrote about growing pains, I was metaphorically speaking, however today the pain is very real. After five hours of hand crushing, sieving and sorting wild soils and rocks in 95 F heat, with cuts and calluses on my hands, a sore back and arms from hunching and pounding, the sum total of my recordable work is captured in the following picture:
I have had a growing pile of untested wild soils and rocks accumulating in my studio, given to me by friends or collected while traveling. What better time than my residency to begin testing them. When I did my last crushing marathon, I remember having to take ibuprofen for three days straight because I was so sore all over. I had promised myself then that next time would be different. I would space out the crushing process over a few weeks to avoid taxing my body too much. However the reality is that the process is rather messy and requires such elaborate preparation that it just makes sense to dedicate one whole day to it and get it done. Tomorrow morning I might have to face the consequences of my actions.
The fuse Tests are now getting fired in the kiln as I write this. On Monday they will get analysed and then the chemistry altered accordingly and retested. After the different rounds of testing is done and these wild soils are applied on yunomis, I am hoping like always there will be a couple of gems that would totally make me forget the ordeal and get me excited for the next round of collecting and testing.
Cuts and calluses