Picking up where I left off

I realize I've been remiss posting photos lately, particularly the results of the last firing. In my defense, I had a lot of packing to do. Between Monday and Wednesday, I packed and shipped twelve boxes of pottery (three round-trips on the loaded pottery trike), blowing through my entire stock of bubble wrap and packing beads. And I still had to wrap and bag another half dozen orders for local delivery or pick-up. The perils of popularity, I suppose.

Very little oxidation in this firing, I think I had no more than seven or eight white pots. If anything, we were a little over-reduced. Much of it is fine, if toasty, but I'll probably refire some of the brownest pots in my electric kiln to brighten up the colors a little.

In any event, here's some "after" photos from some special-order pots I showed while glazing.

I particularly like this snowy owl teapot. I actually made two, though in unloading I got clumsy and dropped and broke the lid of the second one. Fortunately, I can back-calculate shrinkage and make another for the next firing, so I'll have one to sell when Market opens in April.

Tall mugs continue to offer new challenges: orangutans and tarsiers, along with the more familiar sloth and panda patterns. Just learned from Tsunami Books that they're down to six mugs, so the forty I put into the kiln will be halved by this afternoon.

The wildflower dinner salad bowls were among the over-reduced pieces, so I brightened them up in the electric kiln. I still don't quite get the connection between yarn and aquatic top predators, but what the heck, they're fun to draw (and the frog makes me hoppy).

I didn't get any pics of the rest of the plate and pie special orders, but they all turned out pretty well, I think.

Now I just have to get the rest of the local orders, and all the cardboard box scrap, out of the studio so I can actually play with clay again.