So things have settled down a little... the two roommates who were kicked finally *moved* out this week. It was pretty tense until they did, but things have been ok since then. And by "ok", what I really mean is "no one is openly hostile". Which is a nice change, but... still a far cry from what would be nice. Anyway, I am glad things are a little better.

I had a good day in the ceramics studio, I was able to get some work done and am really happy with hoe it turned out. We did a Raku firing in class today, which was a lot of fun. With Raku, when the pieces are fired and really hot, you pull them out of the kiln and then set them in bins that are full of sawdust, newspaper, and other combustibles. The pieces are so hot that they ignite the material, and the ash produced gives the piece a cool finish. I'm hoping to Raku fire a piece next week. The ones done today were really beautiful. The only drawback is that the pieces don't get hot enough to vitrify, and they remain porous, so you can't use them to hold food or water. But I think I'll still give it a shot. I'm hoping to find a ceramics studio in Winnipeg so I can keep up with it after graduation.