Those late night thoughts...

It is remarkable, that one week can go by without venturing much further beyond the perimeter of the studios, my apartment, and the courtyard they enclose. The only exceptions are my daily runs and a few trips for groceries.
I nearly forgot how the ceramic process (especially when molds and casting is involved) takes on the life of its own, a steady rhythm of making parts, putting them together, drying, cleaning, wetting, fixing, polishing, drying, making parts, putting them together,etc...
The studios are truly amazing! EKWC resembles more to a laboratory than a messy art making place. Everything is set up as if someone had thought long and hard how to optimize every process, making each step of it as convenient as possible. For example, the plaster room: stainless steel tables, floordrain and a spray hose for easy clean up. A scale (to measure the ratio before mixing) with a vent, next to a rack for the plaster to be measured, which is adjacent to the sink (for the water). Recycled clay is in closable plastic bins (just the right hight, so I don't even have to bend down), clamps and tools on the wall, boards for mold walls in every possible size on a separate rack. Plaster chunks refuse go to a series of plastic tubs, which are just the right size for being picked up for emptying out during clean up. Slips have their own separate mixer, conveniently next to the dry materials, another sink, another scale and another spray hose, just near the clay mixers and pugmills for making plastic clays. The glazeroom is separate from all of this. It has its own ventiallation system, materials kept in well labeled bins, sinks, scales, everything is organized and clean! Did I mention that there are two dryers for molds? Or the fact that there is a staff member for research on materials? Or that the kilns are hooked up to computers, which not only control them but archive and can print a diagram of the firing cycle (the rate of temperature increase over time)? Or that there is a whole library of clay and glaze tests tiles that one can consult before choosing materials?
It's been a week and I'm still overwhelmed.
...and at this point, already sleep deprived. Working until 2-3am every day, I'm having a hard time to make it to the morning coffee time at 10am. I used to be a morning person..!

There are 3 different things that I've been working on this past week. They all feel like tip-toeing around a still shapeless idea that I have somewhere in my brain but I could not yet fully formulate. I think, these projects will eventually all become by-products, but right now they help me to figure out the form and the visual solution to what I'm looking for. At around 1 am tonight, I considered throwing everything that I have made aside and doing something wild, something that does not look like the work I usually do. Before I got to that, though, I decided to call it a day (or a night?)...