It was a long & productive evening in the studio. I’m loading the soda kiln tomorrow night… and I still have a LOT of glazing & wadding to do. Tonight I filled the front half of my studio cart… tomorrow I tackle the other side. When the cart is full, I know I’m pretty close to a full soda kiln!

Gotta start glazing. I’m loading another soda kiln Friday night, and I’ve got a LOT of blank bisque waiting for some color… no such thing as too many mugs, right?!

So this glaze is a copper red which turns out nice in a reduction gas kiln.
This upside-down berry bowl turned out nice & red… as the glaze should.

But you could a yellow “burnt” clear celadon look…

Or maybe even a mottled purple-ish color…

And if you’re “lucky” enough, you might get all of the colors on just one berry bowl. And by “lucky” I mean shocked to find out that this berry bowl was apparently in a pretty strong oxidation pocket in the lower back corner of the kiln. Lucky me, huh?!

Apparently, this is what happens when worlds collide…
the edge of the oxidation pocket makes a surprisingly straight line, huh?!

Once the kiln cooled off enough, I started unloading. Layer by layer. Shelf by shelf. By the time I was done, I was excited about the new assortment of berry bowls, mugs, tumblers, soap dispensers, bowls, tumblers, tiles & more!

Just in time for my next art fair in a couple weeks.
Evanston Lakeshore Art Fair on Saturday, August 3rd & Sunday, August 4th.

And here’s a quick peek at the latest batch of glazed mugs…

I’m especially fond of this blue-ish glaze on mugs thrown with B-Clay. I like how it pools, puddles and accentuates all of the stamping! Pretty sweet if I do say so myself.

The kiln loading went well today. I’m sharing the cone 10 studio kiln with my studio neighbor Karen Patinkin. We’ve both ben glazing for a few days. Mine is more dipping, Her’s is more fastidious painting. Either way, we both kind of came together in the end and had a very efficient kiln loading. We were both surprised to see how early we were finished loading this evening.

Unfortunately, I got so carried away packing, loading & finishing up the kiln loading that I absolutely forgot to take some final pictures of the final stack?! So I guess we’re all going to have to wait to see the “after” photos as I forgot to take the “before”???

The glazing has begun. My mind is getting glazed over. And it’s starting to “spread out” all over my studio. It’s amazing to me how neatly stacked piles of bisqued bowls can suddenly take over my small space once they’re glazed and no longer stackable?! Crazy. And it’s also crazy to me to see just how much bisque I have piled up in my studio… I had NO IDEA that there were so many pieces in there waiting to be glazed!!! Crazy!!!

Did my own pseudo-triathlon today.
Rode my bike 35 miles.
Then ran another 5 miles.
Followed by an evening marathon of glazing in the studio!!!

Okay, so I’m not sure that last one counts…
as I also finished off 1/2 a bag of Oreo’s!!!

As much as I hate glazing, you’ve got to start somewhere. So I’m getting ready to pull out the buckets, stir ’em up and start the dipping! Let the glazing begin…

So there’s been a lot of “stray” bisque piling up in my studio. Lots of leftover pieces that didn’t fit into my last firing. So I’ve decided to share a cone 10 glaze kiln this coming week. Now I’ve got a lot of glazing to do… and most people know how much I hate glazing!!!

Tonight I finally got to unload my soda kiln. You don’t know how tough it is to wait. You’ve worked so hard to make the stuff, waited for it to dry, fire it, glaze and then fire it again. You want to see it as soon as possible!!! But of course, the kiln decides to cool off at it’s own speed… and you can only open it when it’s good and ready. So finally… after waiting all day… I finally opened it… revealing the treasures inside brick by brick!

A little closer examination of my pots… and some kiln posts?!!!

So now everything is unloaded, packed up, piled into my car and shlepped into my storage room. Now I need to find some time to unpack everything, do a little prepping, cleaning, pricing and RE-packing to get ready for this weekend’s art fair in Schaumburg!