So this all started with an ongoing thread of text messages. With the virus ramping up again as predicted, many people are taking their temperatures throughout the day. Just checking to make sure everything is still good. But the question apparently is… “WHERE do I store my thermometer?!”

In some Gary Pottery apparently…

And then the “trend” seemed to be catching on…
and showing up on the text thread…

But then the question was… Where are the apples???
Oh, right there next to the mini vase… now called a thermometer holder!

And some people seemed to have too many apples… which look yummy...
so they needed an additional “apple bowl”

And then another entry in the mix…
not quite sure that thermometer will tell you if you have the flu or not… but it will tell you if you’re poultry, lamb or smoked ham!!!

But again the question… Where are the apples?!

Apparently this time… not “quite” an apple, or at least not a natural apple… but the faux apple does look pretty great on this large green stamped platter!

As the trend of apples & Gary Pottery seemed to be catching on… another entry of an Apple with “one of Gary’s rare cat steins.” Well played…

To which I quickly responded… “That cat stein is SO RARE that I’d be lying… err, make that fe-lyin’… to say that I’ve ever made one of those.”

Matthew’s response was… “But how do you explain this?”

Apparently I had “signed” the bottom of this??? HA!!!
I had just forgotten & blocked this one out of my memory!!!

As I’m finally putting myself to bed, I just remembered I didn’t finish the day with a shot of the kiln as I put it to bed too! Sure, I may have gotten distracted by SNL… and their take on today’s historic events… but here it is. A glowing hot soda kiln. Turned off. Suddenly quiet. Cooling tomorrow. Can’t wait to see what kind of “magic” might have happened inside. Cuz’ this looked pretty magical at the end on the outside too!!!

A few hours into the kiln firing, and it was time to put it into “reduction”… which means an imbalance of the air-to-gas ratio. You reduce the proportion of air to help seal-up the porous pots, solidify them and make them vitrified. It’s also when you start to see some fun flames shooting out of the kiln!

It was “all systems go” this morning when I came back to the studio. Set the damper, the vents, the peeps and everything else as I turned on the kiln for the long day ahead!

Closed up for the firing… it was a long evening of kiln loading last night. But always satisfying when you get all the bricks in the door frame. Hoping that everything is well-placed, nothing tips over, and no chunks of random kiln bits get inside anything! It was late when I finished last night… and early when I started firing this morning!!!

And there it is… a well thought-out, three-dimensional puzzle of shelves, bricks & pots!!! I always want to squeeze in as many pots as possible, but you need to leave enough air space for the soda atmosphere to move around the pots to create the magic! Lots of shelves… lots of pots… and all fingers crossed!!!

With the holidays coming quickly, it’s time to start firing my holiday ornaments! They’re wheelthrown and then propped up on these little tripods that I make for them. They’re in the soda kiln, so the tripod raises them and allows for all sides to be affected by the soda atmosphere. It’s always my hope that none of them decide to jump off their perch during the firing!!!

Brick by brick, shelf by shelf, pot by pot… and eventually the back stack was done. Then it was onto loading the front stack which is two shelves deep, so twice as many pots!!!

One shelf, one layer at a time…

Last night I loaded the soda kiln with a lot of work… but I’m always struck by the empty kiln before loading. An empty kiln full of potential… and a lot of really cool soda build-up “patina” on the bricks!!!