Late week report on last weekend ...

I've been making plates, squared bowls, vases and a bunch of other things for next week's firing, so have not reported on the July 4 kiln-opening. It was, to paraphrase a couple of my friends, not a great day to schedule an event out here in the country. July 4 is, as you probably know, the big national holiday that is the kickoff for the American summer. This year it fell on a Saturday and it also fell on a gorgeous blue-sky Cape Cod Saturday, of which there have been very few this spring and early summer. And not many blue-sky Monday, Tuesdays etc.
Hence, a sparse turnout. We had neighbors and a couple of good friends show up to drink coffee and pass pots out of the kiln. And for that we're grateful. The rest of the day was spent sorting through pots. The firing was a good one. This combination of glazes and kiln is doing good things. I'll attach a couple of photos.
I've just loaded the truck with pots and tables and such for an off-Cape Cod trip to nearby Marion for Art in the Park. It's a small craft show run by nice people and frequented by equally nice folks from the South Coast. If you're in the neighborhood, drop by. It runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. next to Marion's small but lively art center, just up the street from the harbor.
And next weekend, July 18, will be our next kiln-opening. I'm still making pots for that one. We hope to have a local jeweler to share the bounteous number of visitors who will have gotten all that Independence Day silliness out of their systems and are now prepared to buy handmade stuff. More on that in a couple of days.
On the photos: A brilliant copper red mug with crackle slip beneath; a selection of jugs, a simple vase and three squared teabowls; and just-cooled larger squared bowls, with a small bowl in the background glazed in Antarctic/Ash glaze, with Solway Firth mud (hello, Hannah) spattered on it. More work to be done on that combination. Also in that photo is evidence of the disappearing high cones at the top peep. Apparently, my drying of the conepack was incomplete and hidden water blew up the high-fire pack but left the lower cones intact. First time that's happened to me. Remarkably, the resulting explosion damaged only one pot, a plate.