Thursday, July 8, 2010

Heating up an already hot day on Cape Cod




Temperatures here on the Cape have varied from the high 80s to the mid-90s over the past few days. What better time, then, to fire a load of pots and push up the local thermometer ever farther? So for the past few hours, temps in the studio have lingered up around 120 degrees F. I don't spend much time in there when I'm firing, especially in the summer. Just long enough to turn up the gas and check cones, then I'm outa there.
I turned the gas flame on low for an hour, starting at about 8:30 p.m. and then did the routine hourly turn-ups and body reduction and so on, up until about 2:30, when cone 10 was down at the top and bending at the bottom. That was shutdown on another six-hour or thereabouts firing. I left the studio doors open to dissipate the heat and went into town for an iced coffee and a bit of reading at Coffee Obsession. That post-firing coffee - hot in winter, cold in summer - is a routine I enjoy. And the afternoon is usually a less chatty time in the coffee shop, so real reading can be done.
Yesterday I took a break from glazing to photograph some of the summer flowers Dee has growing around the yard. And I ran into another worker there on the echinacea, undaunted by the heat, doing his job.


1 comment:

Tracey Broome said...

Those flower shots would make beautiful prints. You should talk to Meredith about having them in the blogger show for the walls! Felt like 120 here today as well, I had the kiln going below the deck and all the heat was rising right where I was working. Too hot for me out there!