Getting it done...

The itty bitty gas kiln is firing tonight. Inside it's belly is an assortment of mug, plates, and a vessel sink. All are orders. Fingers and toes crossed for a fabulous firing. We are fortunate that we have this little kiln to hold us over until our larger kiln can be rebuilt (soon, very soon... wish for good weather so our kiln shed will be installed).

While the kiln fires, I have taken some new photos of mugs for the Etsy shop. It's always good to freshen things up for the new year.

Oops!

I do some of my best thinking (and worrying) between 4 am and 6 am. Yesterday was no different. I woke up and suddenly realized that the stoneware plates that I made for an order were supposed to have little slip trailed dots and I had forgotten them! Luckily they hadn't been bisque fired. They were sitting on the ware rack, bone dry.
Typically I slip trail when the pots are leather hard. I learned a lot of slip trailing techniques from a decorator who workded at Salmon Falls Stoneware in Dover, NH. At Salmon Falls, all the decorating is done on bone dry clay, so I knew it wouldn't be a problem to add the dots at this stage. One of the benefits of working on bone dry is that if you screw up, it's easier to scrape off the slip, let it dry completely, then sand the area to remove any color that is left behind. I have had better luck working on leather hard pots. Occasionally, on the dry wares, the slip has broken off. It always seems to happen when your loading the bisque and it's a pain to get out the slip trailer and start doing fixes. These little dots should be fine. If any fall off it's a minor fix.

Wrapping Up

Yesterday was the "big" pack and ship day. We unloaded the kiln on Tuesday night and most of it was orders or Christmas gifts. This year I had a lot of personalized piggy bank orders. I had my fingers and toes crossed that they all came out perfect. I breathed a big sigh of relief when they emerged.
Then it was the tedious part of putting orders together. Many of the "name" pigs were orders of two or more. I wanted to be sure I put the right siblings in boxes together! After packing one pig, I couldn't remember if I had put a cork in it's snout. I hadn't sealed the box yet, but didn't want to un-bubble wrap it, so I dropped a cork into the box just in case! If there was one in there already, they will have a spare.

Jeff and I did a few larger piggy banks this season. The white one didn't last too long in the Etsy shop but I do still have this big blue piggy bank (below), along with the regular size aqua/shino one (above).

Noon tomorrow (eastern time) is the deadline to order from my Etsy shop. At this point I will ship everything priority mail. The post office says you will get it in time for Christmas, but like most government agencies... there is no guarantee! 

Here's what I have been up to...

I have been working on bowls this week. I enjoy throwing bowls, but I really dislike trimming them. It seems that I always lose one or two in the process. Whenever I think, maybe I can trim a little more off right there, I should set the bowl aside and come back to it later. I do enjoy the carving process and I have been playing a little more with breaking up the design with some bands.

The first glaze firing for 2014 happened this week. It was a good firing with lots of orders that were sanded, boxed, and shipped. It's great that so many pots were already sold, but it was a little sad not to get to spend some time with some of them.

This one was unspoken for, it will go in the Etsy shop.

This litter of pigs came out of the kiln and were shipped off to their new forever homes. 

I am not sure if they look excited or nervous!

A Second Chance

I am not a fan of re-firing, but Jeff is. This week we had orders that needed to be shipped and had extra space in the kiln. Jeff decided to re-fire some pots. Along with orders.
My biggest fear. Blow ups that will injure pots that need to be shipped!!!!

Remember this sad little pig from last spring?

He was granted a new life via re-firing...

He is glorious in all his wood fired juiciness! Sort of like plastic surgery only more affordable.

The rest was a mixed bag. At least no orders were harmed by them.

Fire Away!

Thankfully, once I had the 50 piggy banks assembled, I had some time to make some mugs. It was a nice break from those cute little faces in the background.

We finished loading the kiln at 1:00 pm today and Jeff is now bricking up the door. That means that if all goes well, we will be done firing by 1:30 am. This is when I am thankful that Jeff is a night owl!!!
You can see from the photo above, that we are using my shelves in the back of the kiln and Jeff's advancers in the front. The advancers are larger and let us fit a few more pots into our little kiln. They won't fit in the back stack because of the bag wall.

This is a pretty tight load and we managed to get all the orders in plus a good number of the pigs. I think we have enough work made that we will be firing again soon after we unload.
While the kiln fires and cools I have decided it's time to clean and organize the studio. I must say I have been inspired by all the new year studio cleaning that I have seen on facebook and blogs!

No before pictures will be posted.
It's way too scary.