Less than a week from the next Holiday Home Show… MUD & METAL…
and I’m trying to squeeze in yet another kiln of goodies!!! So I spent the evening tonight glazing up more porcelain pots in some bright cone 6 colors. Lots of mugs, yunomi, holiday stars, tiles and more!

A quick layer loaded into a bisque kiln.
Rapid replenishment for my Second Holiday Home Show on Saturday, December 12th.

Thrown & stamped Saturday… Trimmed & handled Sunday… Drying & into a kiln Monday.

Two wall masks “snuck” their way into my soda kiln. They were a last minute RUSH project. Pushing my luck by making them fresh last Tuesday night before class. And then putting them right into a bisque at the end of that same class!!! More than a little damp still, but they survived. Glazed them and loaded them Friday. Soda-fired Saturday. Out of the kiln Monday night – less than a week from start to finish!!! Whew… and not suggested. Here’s a quick glimpse of them “before” as they were loaded into the soda kiln, and then “after” the soda firing. Just in time for the Holiday Home Show this weekend.

Unloading the kiln is always a weird mix of excitement.
A fun treasure hunt to see everything coming out. But kind of a hurry to get it all done. Unloading all of the pots, packing them up, cleaning the kiln, scraping the shelves, re-kiln washing, sweeping up and all of the other “glamorous parts” of the process that no one thinks about. So many of my pieces go straight from the kiln and into a box to get them home.

Pretty excited about the latest batch of spoons & ornaments.
I’ll have time to really look a them later… for now it’s time to clean & scrape!!!

Three stamped “treasures’ that came out of my latest soda kiln.
Love the colors, the flashing slips and the soda sheen.
Stamped, concentric and ready for their “Big Debut” at next weekend’s Holiday Home Show… at my place… hence the name.

With a little “creativity” with the bricks in the top right corner of the door, my kiln is close to top temperature. All of the soda mixture has been added. So now it’s a bit of a “soak” and then I can turn it off for the evening. Mission accomplished.

The back stack is already done. Shelf by shelf. Layer by layer.
Lots of pieces packed in getting ready for next weekend’s Holiday Home Show!!!

And then about halfway through the front stack, I found the perfect shelf for two new masks. The “instant” masks I made on Tuesday before teaching my class… bisqued wet that night… and now going into the kiln already on Friday! Whoo-hoo!!

Sealed up and put to bed for the night. I turned the burners on for about 20 minutes to warm it up, dry the wadding & glaze. But now it’s bricked up, and done for the night.

So I finally finished glazing & wadding upstairs in my studio. My cart travels downstairs in the rickety freight elevator. So I add some masking tape “seat belts” so nothing jumps off during the ride. And now it looks like everything made it down to the kiln room in one piece… time to remove the tape…. and start the loading… giddy-up!!!

The empty soda kiln filled with potential & possibilities…
with a beautiful soda-glazed brick interior. Let the loading commence!!!

Loading another bisque kiln… rushing to get everything done in time for my soda kiln. So much so that some of the pieces going in are still a bit damp. Not bone dry as they’re “supposed” to be. Fingers crossed…

Layer #1 – LOTS of mugs… filled with LOTS of ornaments!!!

Layer #2 – More mugs, ovals, and spoons.

Layer #3 – My new wall medallions… and some new wall blocks.

Layer #4 – More of my spoons resting inside a large box by one of my studio neighbors!

Layer #5 – Two bowls and a LOT of new wall blocks… a little wetter than I would like.

Trying on the edges… but still a little wetter than they “should” be. Oh well…
I’m pretty confident that they’ll survive the firing. They’re well made, hollow and as dry as they can be… so here we go!!!