Not a cloud in the sky this morning… just some contrails pretending to be.

The first sneak peek… pretty pleased so far…

Look what just spilled out of the bag… kinda like “letting the cat out of the bag”… but it’s a bunch of beautiful mini-paintings by the talented Mary Foster! Just another collaboration in the works for this weekend’s ART IN THE GARDEN in Glenview! Now I’ve just got to add my part in the next couple days!!!

Several hours later… and YES, it was a very long day on Saturday… the kiln fired nicely and ended in a blaze of glory! Always fun to see the flames sneaking out of whatever gaps they can find in the bricks. With the new kiln & bricked door, it all seemed pretty tight as there weren’t as many flames shooting out as usual. Now I’m just hoping that everything inside turns out great?! We’ll all find out soon… as I will be unloading the kiln later tonight!!!

Always exciting to get the firing started. After weeks & weeks of making the work, days of glazing & hours of loading… it feels great to have everything in the kiln starting off a long day of firing! Okay, so I didn’t get it started quite as early as I had hoped… but oh well…

After a lengthy loading of the soda kiln… it felt good to finally have it all bricked up! It was late Friday night… looking forward to an early start firing on Saturday morning!

So Friday night I loaded the soda kiln… layer by layer… brick by brick… pot by pot. It always takes longer than I think it will. But it’s important to think it through while loading to allow some air space & flow through the kiln for good soda exposure… while at the same time getting in as many pots as possible! The more pots you squeeze in, the more pots you can divide the kiln costs over. Can’t wait to see how these turn out… as many of them will be going to ART IN THE GARDEN next weekend!

An empty kiln is always filled with so many possibilities. This will be my first firing in the NEW Lillstreet soda kiln. It was just rebuilt about a month ago, and has three or four firings under its belt. Nice to see the soda build-up already “glazing” the bricks inside! I hope the new kiln fires well for me!!!

So it’s been a very busy couple of weeks… finishing up Summer Camp AND throwing & glazing a lot of pots. I loaded the soda kiln late Friday night after the final day of camp. My studio cart travels from the second floor to the first floor kiln room on a rickety freight elevator. So I use a lot of masking tape as “seat belts” so none of them jump off along the way!

Kickin’ off my Labor Day with another sunrise bike ride! Looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day… so get out there and play!!! I’ll be out there on my bike again this afternoon… but then “laboring” this evening on Labor Day as I need to unload my soda kiln tonight!