This one was a "quiet firing"

Dee and I and our friend Donna Sutherland openend and emptied the kiln this morning. Someone described this as "a quiet firing." It was that, actually, with a fair amount of white Shino on white stoneware. Not a lot of golden brown Shino fireworks, though there was some, and there were the inevitable few copper reds to liven up things.
I remain excited about these faceted and pushed-out bowls, both the teabowls and larger serving bowls. The process of cutting the thick clay walls after a couple of pulls creates an uneven thickness in the walls and results in a randomness in the rim that I like. These bowls can be taken right to the edge of collapse and produce a lively and seemingly precarious pot. I've been doing this for a few months now ... maybe I should only make teabowls and smallish serving bowls and forget the teapots and big jugs and plates. Though I guess it would be helpful to know there's a market for such things.
This weekend, after Thanksgiving Day, I'll be headed to New Bedford for the three-day Hatch St. Open Studios sale. Two floors in an old factory of artists of all kinds. I occupy a space in Mike Pietragalla's furniture studio. This will be, I think, the fourth year I've done the show.
Also in the photographs here: Three small bowls made and glazed by Alli Connolly, the intern who works with me; two handbuilt vases by Marstons Mills potter Lois Hirshberg and a nice little Shino bowl by Shelley Fenily. Both are friends and fellow members of the Cape Cod Potters.