Wood

Unless you've wood fired before it's hard to imagine the actual amount of work involved.  I've had customers ask me how long it takes to make that mug.  So where to start?  With mixing the clay, or mixing glazes?  How about the wood?  Today we finished stacking 4 cords of wood - it's taken a few days, we're old - and then we'll have to split the remaining wood and stack it.  Each firing takes about one cord - picked up one piece at a time and put into the kiln - no wonder arms and hands are tired at the end of even a relatively short firing!

Kiln shed is almost full.  Outside pallets are crammed full.

Waiting to be split and stacked.  The biggest pieces are 12 - 14 inches across.

Pot Shots

Here are a few pots from the June firing.  Better late than ...

Ash glazed nesting bowls

Bare and near bare jugs from the front of the kiln.

Red Shino Nesting Bowls

Red Shino Covered Dish

Temmoku Teapot

Tea dust temmoku oil bottles.

Ash glazed tea pot.

Red Shino tea pot.

Ash glazed tea pot.

Summer Market

The summer market has started in the middle of a heat wave.  We're all trying to stay in the shade and keep the ice water coming.   I love going to the market and just wanted to share with you some of the amazing things made by the people who sell here.

Stephen, the Spice Guy, who mixes all his own spices from recipes he's collected during his travels.

Mirielle of Skimmerhorn Alpacas spinning Alpaca wool.

Skeins of alpaca/merino wool blend with photos of the critters they come from.

Beautiful lavender products from Wynndel Lavender.

Paper Garden bees wax candles.

Pots and doorknobs and fibre art from Andrea at Blue Moon Pottery & Fibre.

Fresh vegetable and herbs from many vendors.

Kootenay Country Craft Distillery - Artisanal Spirits - Gin & Vodka - made from grain grown in the Creston Valley.

Pots from the May Firing

 The firing was fairly good -  a bit too hot for some of the ash glazes so quite a few runs and plucks - but overall lots of decent pieces.  Now it's back to the wheel and a bit of a push for the June firing.

Ash glazed jug.  Love how it carbon traps.

12" shino plate.

My favourite jug from this firing.  Red shino.

Front of the kiln vase with heavy ash.  Ash glaze part way down.

Great colour on the red shino baby dishes.

Red shino faceted bowl.

Red shino soy server.

Temmoku condiment dish.

Ash glazed batter bowl with extra kiln ash.  

I've always wanted one of these but couldn't afford so I made!

Stacked

I love it when the table and the shelves are full of glazed, ready to go pots.  I love the beautiful patterns that the salts in the shino glazes make as the glaze dries.  And I love loading the kiln!  So exciting, so hopeful, imagining what will happen in the fire.  

Firing tomorrow.

Moving Right Along

Pots are piling up day by day, heading for an end of the month firing (or if the garden wins, maybe early/mid-May).  It's nice to be semi-retired and not have the pressure to make pots at the expense of everything else.  It's a gorgeous blue sky day, not too cold, which makes it very hard to be inside.

Noodle bowls, jugs and tankards.

Big mugs drying.

Fat pots waiting for handles.

The rosemary plant overwinters in the studio and blooms every year at this time.  Beautiful!

Out of the Long Dark

It took much longer this year to come out of The Dark but the sun is shining, the sky is blue and small green tips are poking their way out of the still frozen ground.  So first a few mugs, then of course, the handles and we're on our way.  The bin is full of clay that's been pugged over the past few weeks and the first custom order of the year came in today.  No excuses now.  

This year I'm cutting back - only 3 firings instead of 5 - so less pressure, more time for the garden and  the good bits of ordinary life.  Here's to spring and a couple of good firings!!