Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend

I've been woodfiring for ten years now.  The first kiln was a Bourry box kiln - almost no ash on the pots and an easy clean up of the shelves, even with salt glazing.  Just used a scraper and a silicone carbide grinding block.  The new kiln, on the other hand, gets fiercely hot (cone 12 flat at the front) and  deposits a fair amount of ash, especially on the first 2 stacks, so clean up has been the absolute worst part of my job (which is the best job in the world) until last year.  I'd been using masonry discs on my angle grinder and was going through at least 10 per firing and taking hours and hours and hours.  Last year my clever husband found these amazing diamond cups for the angle grinder and now all 20 shelves are cleaned and have new kiln wash in under 2 hours!!  Wish I'd known 5 years ago.  New wood firers take note.

Signs of Spring

So a couple of weeks ago we had minus 15 degrees celsius, then about a foot of snow, then unseasonably warm temperatures and rain.  A lot of rain.  The studio is at the bottom of a slope with a lovely flat, flagstone area in front that turned out to be a perfect catch basin for all the rain and rapidly melting snow.   Which of course, found its way into the studio.  Only a couple of inches of water and only in about a quarter of the space.  For the first time I was grateful that the concrete floor is so uneven that the little lake remained near the door.  Only loss was a roll of newsprint that was standing on the floor.

The field in front of the studio yesterday.

Daffodils and tulips poking through in front of the studio.  

 And in the middle of all that I've been making and making!   Teapots,  casseroles, and all the usual mugs and bowls and jugs and bottles.  Spending more time exploring and trying different things that I'm usually in too much of a hurry to do.  It's been wonderful.  The first firing this year will be on March 22nd.  Today is shelf grinding, tomorrow is kiln cleaning and post grinding.

Little pourers for soya sauce or maple syrup or salad dressing.

Some bisque ware.