It is with great pride

That I finally finished the lion platter order!

Had two of them come out oxidized; finally have a decent reduction so I can fill an order I took in Wisconsin in February.

Success!

Had an unusually successful firing this last time, mostly, I think, because I stopped trying to fiddle with it to improve the atmosphere, or the fuel efficiency, or whatever. Finished promptly a little after 6 pm, top still a little hotter than the bottom, but not excessively so, and when I opened it up Wednesday evening, there were a couple of light zones, but no terribly over-reduced ones. And though two pasta bowls developed cracked rims, I still had three octopus and three crabs to fill my gallery order. Hustled them out Wednesday night and took them home to pack and ship Thursday morning, to arrive at Olympia before the Monday deadline.

So many

So many good pots out of the kiln, but still so many left over. Here's a sampling of what got through the firing. I'm still going to reload and fire again this week. I've been so far behind this year that I just want to get a little bit ahead, even if it's temporary.

So, cookie jars:

Covered casseroles:

Mixing bowls and mixing crocks:

A whole lot of pie plates, but only two desserts:

...which is why I feel the need to load up the kiln again tomorrow.

Ten days later

We finally got to celebrate our anniversary!

The actual day fell on a Saturday Market, the next day was kiln loading, then there was firing and jury duty and Market again, and Denise led a book arts workshop on Sunday and holy cats, if we hadn't grabbed a day off with both hands, it wouldn't have happened at all. As is, I was up until 11 o'clock Monday night recycling clay that wouldn't keep until Friday.

But we packed up some snacks and bears and headed out for the coast, just for a day. Visited our favorite beach, just north of Florence, catching precisely the lowest tide we've ever seen, perfect for tide pooling. Drove back to Florence for lunch at Mo's, visited a local co-op gallery and picked up a little art, even swung by the local Farmers Market and bought some strawberries and a chocolate croissant.

It wasn't a perfect day--what started out as sunny and clear in Eugene turned out overcast, with occasional spitting mist on the coast, and Mo's never properly salts their fish-n-chips--but still pretty darn good, and we talked to some lovely people from SoCal and Cincinnati on the beach. Even discovered some work by an old grad-school friend in the gallery. Good times.

Thought I'd found a couple of whelks, but in fact they were both hermit crabs. Though I see a couple of limpets in the photo that I missed in real life.

The stars of the show!

You know what they say: Keep your friends close and your anemones closer.

...and sometimes, ya just gotta stop and look at cool things in the sand.

All in all, a day to celebrate.