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Pop Up Camper Repair - Part 1 Let's Remove the Roof

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Prologue A few years ago I purchased a 1981 Palomino pop-up camper from a 1st grade teacher.  It was an impulse buy.  I know nothing about pop up campers. But now I know I paid a bit too much for the unit.  We have used it for 5 years without much maintenance.  But we still paid too much. The picture above is a few years ago with the camper set up.  It is rough but functional What I knew was that the wood on the roof was a bit sketchy...and when the lift arms cables broke after the season in 2010, it was time to undertake fixing the roof.  Due to a few circumstances beyond my control, I couldn't fix the roof in 2011.  So this May (2012) we began the project. The Roof Repair With the help of reading posts on www.popupportal.com and obsessing about this for a year in my head, I began the process.  The first trick was how to remove the roof.  The external lift arms had to be removed to repair the spring / cable mechanism anyhow. Th...
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A New Kiln Build

In rural part New Hampshire, a wood fired kiln is being built by the New Hampshire Potters Guild.  This kiln will replace a 30-year old, tired, kiln.  I'm creating a short film to document the event.   The short (30 seconds) video provides a glimpse of the beginning of the process.  Watch for more.
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Porcelain in Name Only

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Notwithstanding Indigenous peoples of the Americas, during the early years of the last century American individuals using their hands to form clay into pottery were referred to as vessel makers.  Ceramic vessel making was practiced as either vocational education (to provide skilled labor to industry), therapeutic activity for people with nervous disorders or as a hobby. Serious hobbyist frequently dug their own clay from local deposits, built their own wood fired kilns and wheels and mixed their own glazes.  It was a process of trial and error to teach yourself to be a potter before 1950. By the time I was introduced to clay in the late 1960's and taking my first baby steps as a ceramic artist, formal training existed. Suppliers mined raw material and sold clay and raw materials to schools and hobbyists. Clay was mined or manufactured as low-fire (earthenware), high-fire (stoneware) and porcelain.   Low-fired earthenware cannot be made vitreous and historically has...
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