Time to “cook” some pumpkins! Just loading one last bisque kiln before this weekend’s soda firing. Lots of pumpkins going in… hopefully all DRY so we don’t have any pumpkin explosions this time around?!

Batch number two DONE!… and DRYING!!!
Again, I need to make sure they’re completely dry before they go into a bisque kiln. To help speed that along, I’m drying them on an elevated plastic grid so that they can get some air exposure from the bottom too!

So my second batch of pumpkins is coming along nicely… stems, warts, colored flashing slip. Check, check & check!

So apparently this is what happens when you go into the studio early in the morning… and have that nagging feeling that you might not have enough pieces to fill next weekend’s soda kiln?! And you have a little panic… and start throwing MORE!!!

It’s gonna be tough to get these all stamped, trimmed, dried, bisqued & glazed before going into my soda kiln next weekend!

Uh oh… tick-tock, tick-tock…

Okay, so I must say that I’ve been kind of enamored by that first batch of pumpkins… so why not try to crank out another batch in time for my soda firing?! So here we go again… another batch, even more this time & slightly smaller. I mean, you gotta have all different sized pumpkins, right?

So for now my pumpkins are drying. If you remember back to last year, I kinda “rushed” the drying process and put my pumpkins into the bisque kiln too soon. We had a little “explosion” situation because they weren’t dry yet. Let’s just say, that mistake will NOT happen again this year. I have plenty of time to let these dry this year!

After adding warts onto my pumpkins, it was time to paint them all with orange flashing slip… as my plan is to fire these in my next soda kiln. The slip might look “plain” now… but in the atmospheric firing, the soda mixture will make the slip change to an orange color. If all goes well…

You know that everyone loves a good stem on their pumpkin when searching through the pumpkin patch. So I’ve added some twisted-viny stems to my pumpkins! Next up, my other favorite thing… some good warts & bumps coming soon!!!

It’s always amazing to me how a few grooved-line indentations & a squished top can make a simple sphere look so much like a pumpkin so quickly!

While I’m still “struggling” to keep Summer alive… hanging on as long as I can… I must admit to myself that it is time to start focusing on my new Fall harvest. Starting with wheelthrown spheres… these little babies will be “pumpkintized” when they get to a soft leatherhard stage.