Coffee Pottery

After over 10 years with Yahoo!, I am retiring.

The Yahoo! Small Business team threw a surprise retirement party for me. Rob and Peter prepared the food and refreshments.

They all gathered in one of the conference rooms and then Alok said he wanted to speak with me. He led me to the room. Thierry tried to distract me on the way but it wasn't necessary - I was surprised!

Over 10 years ago Yahoo! bought GeoCities and I was one of the lucky ones who was allowed to continue working on the property. I was not the only original GeoCities engineer in our group. Dak (the tall shy guy) was still working on GeoCities which had now morphed into Yahoo! Small Business.

We had a toast ...

...and they gave me some parting gifts. A Yahoo! thermos and cups and 2 folding chairs. These will be very useful for "concert on the green" events here in Henderson.

They also gave me a light pull-over Yahoo! jacket. That will be sufficient to keep me warm in the winter in southern Nevada.

Sriram gave me a special gift ---

Then the party really began.

Pictures were taken by Jackie Sakurai. Thank you, Jackie.

It's been over 2 months since the last entry. I'm still working full time but that is a lame excuse. I visited my brother and sister in Indiana since the last entry. Not much is happening at the studio.

Just another pretty sunset seen from our patio. Photo taken July 8, 2009.

I started throwing pots again. I'm trying to fill up the kiln. I'm using up the clay that I brought from San Jose.

The lighter-colored pots are mostly "Sculpture Raku" clay body. There is a bit of some other clay bodies also since this is all recycled clay. I found that this clay body works well for making goblets. The browner-colored clay is "T2";. It has no grog - very smooth. I tried to make goblets with it but they would fall apart when I was forming the stem.

There is an amazing video on YouTube showing how to make a goblet with only one hand. YouTube has some other great videos of Claudio Reginato. Take a few minutes and watch a master at work.

As you may have noticed, the blog page has changed - hopefully for the better. The old blog was using the Yahoo! 360 blog system which is no longer available. (You can still see the old blog pages at http://coffeepottery.com/journal). The new system allows me to integrate the blogging into my web site more easily.

I would appreciate your help in testing out the comment system. Please add a comment to this blog entry. Tell me what you like and don't like about the system.

On the pottery front, I have started to throw pots again. I'll post some pictures soon

My daughter, Karen, and son-in-law, Larry Illg had a daughter, Katarina, on May 23rd. We are visiting them in Denmark now.

It\'s been quite a while since I made an entry. A lot has happened.

My wife had a second bout with breast cancer. This one is taking longer to recover from.

My son and daughter-in-law, Stephanie, had a baby, Lila Mae. Stephanie is fine and Lila is beautiful.

My daughter and son-in-law have moved to Denmark and will have a baby next spring.

The studio is still a work in progress.

The new studio is slowly progressing. We have tile on the floor in one room now.

Visited Aardvark here in Las Vegas last week-end. I will have to learn how the clay bodies they sell work. None of the clay bodies I had worked with in the Bay Area are available here.

It\'s been a long time coming and it\'s not quite all there yet but this is my new kiln - a Geil DL-18F.

Paul Geil makes great kilns (http://kilns.com).

The truck driver, Kyle, who delivered the kiln was fabulous. His job was only to deliver the kiln but went beyond. He operated the forklift and moved the kiln into the kiln room. He skillfully inserted the kiln through the double doors with only a few inches to spare above and below (since the forklift was at a slight angle). He then helped us use a pallet jack to place the kiln in the middle of the kiln room. (It needs at least 36 inches of open space around it.)

We are having some issues with the house attached to the studio so we won\'t be able to actually use the kiln until they get fixed. (Probably September).

In the mean time I have a manual to read and absorb. I ordered the kiln with computer controls (of course - I am a \"Technical Yahoo!\") so I need to become familiar with the way they work. From the manual overview:

\"The controllers do exactly the same thing (that a skilled potter would do) but the difference is that they never get bored or tired, and they can make tiny adjustments to both the damper and the gas valve that a normal human would never be able or willing to make.\"

Any of you who have managed a kiln firing can certainly relate to this.

And another gorgeous sunset. Come and visit some time.