Fresh from the kiln… I unloaded my soda kiln last night and got a lot of sweet pieces out of it. After a slightly anxiety-ridden firing, all turned out well. So now these two, and almost 50 more new mugs from this firing will all be headed to ART IN THE BARN this weekend!!! Come on out to Barrington!!!

Last night I unloaded my soda kiln. After a full day of firing and a full day of cooling, you’re always a little anxious to unbrick the door and get your first peek of what’s inside. The front of the kiln is always “pounded” with a bit more soda… and there fore a bit more “gray.” But the backsides of those pots on the edge are usually pretty sweet, with great contrast to the soda blast zone. Here’s the front stack of the kiln…

And then the back stack of the kiln…
looks like pretty good coverage throughout. No dry spots that I can see so far.

Yep, everything turned out pretty well. A good coverage of soda on the pots.
A lot of nice flashing. Some sweet glaze effects.

A LOT of mugs… you know they’re my favorite thing to make!!!

A couple new sets of salt & pepper shakers…

And some new tiles, in a few new sizes…

Today was a great night to turn regular cylinders into something Ghoulish. Every year I like to add another character to The Ghouls Collection. We started with a Pumpkin… then added a Skull & a Frankenstein. Followed by a Vampire. So what to add this year???… I figured a Black Cat would be a nice addition.

So tonight was filled with ears, eyes, noses & whiskers!!!

Hard to believe that my favorite TV Show of all time had it’s first debut
ten years ago today!!! I loved it the first time… and have watched the entire series a few more times since. In fact, I’ve just started over again… and just finished Season One this past weekend. Yes, I’m a dork.

Today is the official last day of Summer. Fall beings this evening…

Okay, so I’m not a big fan of hoodies… but otherwise I’m in.
Of course I’d rather have Summer for just a little bit longer!

It started out as a dark & cloudy morning with just a sliver of color along the horizon. As the sun continued to rise, the clouds took on a very moody feel. Kind of ominous, but also filled with potential.

Suddenly the dark clouds lit up with vibrant shades of red.

And lucky for me, I was at a great vantage point for the sunrise… AND a part of the lakefront where the waves come crashing in. And today was one of those fun days!!!

If you don’t time it right, all you get is a beautiful sunrise?!

And let me just say… pretty is pretty, but splashing waves are a LOT more fun.
In this case, timing is everything.

Too much excitement?… let’s calm it back down a bit…

And now back to the waves with one final splash!!!

Late tonight I was able to unload my cone six glaze kiln… with gloves!
Once again, mixed results… but at least I have a few more answers.

Apparently, the top of the kiln is not getting to top temperature. Remember that this time I placed pyrometric cones on the top & bottom shelves. The bottom cones melted just perfectly for a cone six firing. The top cone pack however didn’t show ANY movement at all. So who knows how hot it got on the top?… we know it WASN’T cone six!!!

Okay, so now I might be onto something. And maybe this explains some of my “random” results. I’m getting tired of testing a full kiln’s worth of work to find another problem… more pinholing, more crawling, more yuck!!! Maybe once we fix the kiln temperature problem I can start to get some consistent results???

Okay, so we’re less than a week away from ART IN THE BARN.
My soda kiln is cooling… so what better time to START making the newest Ghoul to add to the collection?! Could I have put it off any later? I don’t think so…

C’mon now… this is just crazy!   CRAZY PERFECT!!!
Yep, she’s at it again…

For anyone who knows me fairly well,
you know that I have a strange fascination with roadkill.
Can’t get enough. Gotta stop. Must take a photo.

Having pedaled thousands of miles across the country & rural farmlands, you see a wide range. And not surprisingly, I now have quite the collection of photos of roadkill I’ve seen over the years. It’s the “Circle Of Life.” It’s nature’s way of reclaiming one of its own. It’s one bad decision in thinking they can out-race that car across the road. It’s the fascination of how thing change, evolve, decay and reveal a whole new system, a structure, a skeleton.

And now two of my favorites are colliding…
roadkill done with that wonderfully whimsical Cory McCrory flair!!!
Gotta love it… gotta have it. You know my birthday is coming up… hint, hint…

She’s started a whole collection of roadkill plates.
And here they are with underglaze colors waiting for the glaze firing.
They can ONLY get better!!! I can’t wait to see the final results!!! Love ’em Cory!!!

So here’s one… “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
To prove to the raccoon that it CAN be done!!!