Looking around the burner ports on the bottom, I could see larger shards of Temmoku-glazed clay that didn't belong there. As firing partner Kim Medeiros and I worked our way down through the stack, I knew something bad was waiting at the bottom. There were ten mugs down there, among other pots, mugs in a color combination that two weeks ago became very popular due to a random Facebook photo I posted. I had several people from the UK to Maryland waiting for one or more of those mugs. They'll have to wait longer. When we got to the bottom shelf, it was clear that every last mug had been hit by a shower of small bits of clay when a small vase blew up. These things happen, though rarely in the glaze firing. Shit ... again.
OK, enough about that. There were good pots in the kiln, in addition to the shrapneled mugs. (Did you know the word "shrapnel" came from the British General Henry Shrapnel, who invented a kind of fragmenting artillery shell in the early 19th century? I didn't ... ) I've been making cut-sided pinched cups lately and there were many of them that survived the clay artillery. And there were many good bowls and pitchers and vases and a couple of terrific pots from the ongoing collaboration between Kim and me. I'll attach a few photos for you, though none will be of the ill-fated mugs.
Here you go. Top: One of our collaborative pots, thrown by me at Kim's studio and then altered and decorated by Kim; a mug, pither and cut-sided cup glazed in Temmoku and then dipped in Michael Coffee's Nuka glaze; a group of small vases; a dozen of the 30 small pinched cups that were in this firing.
7 comments:
Just thought I'd comment so you know I was here,
well, sh*t...I know that is frustrating.
But you posted some lovelies and those folks will be happy to wait and happy when they get their pots.
I helped a friend build a wood kiln. The first time we fired it, my friend invited another person to join us, I knew this was a problem, I had worked with this control freak in the past, not fun. She put a re fire vase in the kiln, made us miserable all night with her "knowledge" and when we unloaded our first firing, her vase had blown up and shards landed in all of the lower work, guess where her work was? On top, it all came out fine, Grrrr....
It's not fun to see all that hard work ruined, but hey, I go through it all the time, and I just keep coming ack for more, haha!
Sorry for your explosion, but you have lots of company, I'm sure:)
Oh yeah, and I'm commenting so you will keep blogging
Xo
Xo to you, Tracey. Thanks. And Dennis and Meredith, too. Sh-t happens. Just thought I'd share. Kim can tell you that I handled the event relatively well. I'll keep blogging.
I groaned out loud after about two sentences. Blow ups in the bisque are bad enough. Blow ups in the glaze are truly the pits
But you did get some fine pots and, yeah, like Tracey I hope you will continue to blog.
All the potters can relate!... We sound like ol' war vets telling our tales of woe. Oh well, if it were easy everybody would do it, right?!
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