Hot.

It's been unseasonably hot around our neck of the woods lately. Upper nineties on most days.

That did not hold us back from firing the STARworks wood kiln 2 weekends ago. (geez, where has the time gone?!)

Anyways, I wanted to share some pictures from that craziness.

The Kiln.

Crew: Adam, Anne, David, Tim

Here are some David's and Tim's pots ready to be wadded.

All kinds of last minute glazing going on. As usual.

Adam. Glazing.

David. Glazing :)

Tim. Glazing :)

Anne. Wadding.

Placing my "twisties" in the kiln worked out great!

The chain saw needed sharpening a few times.

Andreas "helping" with stoking. He loves fire!

Sorry for no explicit details on firing schedule etc. I like to keep it secret!

Ok. Not really.

If you want details - ask for the log book. Overall we thought it went well - opinions differ on whether it was an easy firing, or whether that little kiln was hard to keep climbing... The 8 hour shifts between 4 people seemed to work fine for most of us.

Let's just say - I still would like a small wood/salt Bourry Box that can be handled by 1-2 people, filled in a month, and fired in about 15 hrs... However, the plan as of now is to fire this kiln again in September.

I'm keeping busy in the workshop to reach that goal. The funny thing is - few months ago I found excuses, anything - laundry or vacuuming, baking, etc. to stay in my zone of not making...

Now... well. there are all sorts of piles in the house that need to be "removed" by somebody... Maybe I'll get to them one day. Today, let me just go and put some handles on those cups I made yesterday...

Oh yeah, the work got unloaded last week. It was a rather oxidized firing, I think we all hoped for more color, our oribe glaze bubbled on most pieces, lot of stuff on the floors of both chambers were underfired - so there is plenty to refire. We were all kind of bummed - but that has become a familiar feeling after a wood firing. It's so much hard work, and you have your hopes so high, based on the few jewels that you've gotten out in the past... and then the reality.

But in some way I have learned to welcome that feeling. For me - it helps me distance myself from my work. And it humbles. You know - reminds, that there is only so much control that one can have...

Or - maybe - that you need to be more vigilant next time with your control of the fire - more attentive, not so sloppy. It's hard to do when you are not familiar with the kiln, or don't fire with wood very often...

Well. There's the ramblings for today.

Photos of work to come in the near future.

Koonus kuus

Posting on the run again.

Here's some pix of the cone 6 stuff. The monster was carved into a plate by Trace, our friend's son, who was 6 at the time, I believe. Adam added the color. There is a bunch more, but I didn't get good pix...

And some of my bee cups. They turned out OK.

Been busy in the studio, garden and kitchen...

Hopefully I will have more time soon to sit down and write longer...

Good long weekend:)

...makes for good studio time!

Work in progress:

Some cups, vases and jars.

These drawings will be scraped clean, then sanded when dry. Long process. I seem to like the long processes...

Last finished forms. Those work great in the woodkiln. (When they don't get heavily blasted with ash.) I'm considering spraying them with dry glaze, or colored slip for a more uniform color and firing in gas... Building these with coils, then scraping the surfaces "clean" is another one of those long processes. I guess I just like to spend more time with each piece... maybe that explains my lack of enthusiasm on the selling part too...

So anyways. Life's really busy right now. I have not had time to plow through the depths of internet looking at other people's cool stuff in ages... gardens are growing... kids are growing up...

oi elu.