By now you may have heard about our wheel mishap outside Fort Stockton. One of the wheels of the trailer being pulled behind our motorhome fell off. Since the wheel studs were sheared, the wheel wasn't salvageable. We needed a new wheel, tire, and new studs. Thankfully the other wheel on that side held so we didn't flip the trailer and thankfully no one was hurt in the mishap. The trailer holds my slab roller, hope it's OK.
I'm following Gary across the country in my SUV, which holds a good portion of my clay supplies like hump molds, books, glazes, etc. I saw the hubcap and then the tire rolling on the highway out of the corner of my eye. Once I saw no one was around us, I determined it was our tire that had fallen off. Luckily we have walkie talkies, formerly called handheld transceivers, and I immediately radioed Gary to pull over.
In the meantime, I thought you'd enjoy a tour of my traveling studio. I have clay in bags sitting on the floor of the motorhome. I use the dinette table with a towel and ware board placed on top as a work space. When I complete a piece I store the materials and ware board in any of the available space in the motorhome.
Here I am pinching a pot using some midrange Navajo Wheel clay which is a nice red color. I'm sitting at the work space I set up on the dinette table. I keep a bowl of water to rinse my hands and wet my sponge and change the water frequently. I dump the clay water outside so I don't clog the pipes of the motorhome. Below is a photo of greenware pieces from the Texas white stoneware I have stored in a box in the closet ready to be fired.
Perhaps I will find a place to bisque fire this work in San Antonio or another city city along the way. That way I can stack the bisque pieces on top of one another and have more room to make and dry more work. I get kind of antsy if I don't have my hands in clay. How about you, do you feel that way about clay when you're not working with it?
You can imagine greenware is starting to pile up around here. I'm only making pieces with flat bottoms and not too tall because the motorhome rocks back and forth going down the highway and drying pieces can tip over. If pieces are too green I have to put plastic bags around them to keep them from leaning against something and making a crease in the side I might not want.
We go to check on our trailer today and see what the damages are going to cost us. We plan on driving a little slower from now on, not that we were driving fast by any means. Here in Texas some speed limits are 80 mph. We have been driving no more than 55 mph pulling the trailer.
I leave you with a photo of a stone building we saw in Toyahvale, Texas near Balmorhea on a road trip we took yesterday while we wait for our trailer repair. Can you believe the color of that sky, it is almost purple blue. Wonder why there are two doors to enter the building? Comments and suggestions are encouraged.
