Claire and I have have taken a trip to North Carolina to attend Studio Savvy at Bisque Imports Headquarters. They're one of our main suppliers of bisqueware and supplies, and they invited us and about 50 of our colleagues from all over the country to two days of class sessions about ceramics, glazing, firing, and the business aspects of running a Paint Your Own Pottery studio.
The first day concentrated on the hows and whys of the clay bodies themselves. There was some great information about the usual earthenware we're familiar with, but they also added lots of great information about their new foray into stoneware, a higher fired clay with some very different properties. I can see we've got some studying up to do to decide if we want to go into that, but it looks really, really interesting.
Tomorrow is going to be a dive into finance/business stuff in the morning and the afternoon will be spent on kilns, both firing and maintenance. I can't wait!