Loading again, firing soon ...

I've tried not to waste the winter this year, firing the kiln I think three times since Christmas. Maybe four ... I'll have to look at the journal. My shed gallery is a mess, filled with more pots than can possibly be displayed well. Pots all over the place. And some of the pots from the last firing are still in the studio, getting in my way and in Alex's way. They'll have to go in the next day or so.

I'm giving the wheel a rest for a short time, now that I have more than enough bisqued pots for a kiln load. This will be a cup- and bowl-heavy firing. There will be 50 small teacups in there for Lois Hirshberg's tea ceremony show this spring at the Cotuit Arts Center, not far from here. And some more conventional (for me) teabowls, some of which might also be for that show. Also, there should be 20 or 30 regulation soup bowls for the Soup Bowls for Hunger event in April, sponsored by Cape Cod Potters. When I fire every couple of weeks, each firing is a little heavy on one form or another. Mugs one time, teabowls the next, brush jars another time. Most of the pots in this firing will be brown clay with iron sand and crushed granite wedged in. Rough pots, but they work well with the Shino glazes I use. We'll see. This has been a "rough" winter in terms of the clay I'm using.

Alex, by the way, is finished throwing for a week or so. She spent the time we were away throwing cylinders that she's joined up as the body of a dragon. The head should be coming in today to be attached to the body. She's been carefully keeping the body damp and flexible, to better attach the head and legs and to form the scales. For those of you who don't know, Alex is an 11th grade art student at Falmouth High School and a very hard worker. She hasn't needed help centering her clay and throwing her cylinders for a couple of weeks, which is pretty good, considering she had virtually no wheel experience. I wish I had learned the basics that quickly.

All for now. Gotta get the dry-stacking done, so I know what I've got out there.

Photos: Top, wheel cleaned up ... sort of; teabowls and small jars on the bottom shelf; small cups, thrown off the hump; Soup Bowls for Hunger soup bowls.