I want more time to read. I started the book by Edmund de Waal about porcelain, his obsession, on the plane back to New York. His stories take you to Venice, to China, to his childhood memories. I traveled with this book to Milan and back, and then on the subway to Manhattan while I make little progress. I have to make the time to read.

After finished trimming a few pieces I started planning the upcoming studio sales, and then in the afternoon went to a pencil shop in the Lower East Side I wanted to go for a long time. There were about five people, enough make the store full. Different kinds of pencils and erasers. Lots of Japanese pencils in fact. I tried a few samples and remembered how each of them feels so differently - some are harder to the touch, others feel sticker and oilier. Some pencils are packed in a case like cigars. It is a museum of pencils.