“When you thwart what’s real about you, in order to keep creating content for a financial need, you’re just not gonna make it.” – Louis CK
Number 71 is in The Neitherlands; that magical, spooky, quantum in-between state of neither here nor there. They’re gone but not yet arrived. 850 degrees Farenheit may as well be the other side of the moon.
That’s two firings in a row on good weather days; almost zero wind. No more backburning, no more heart-stopping pilot blowouts. Also no stoking, no endless waiting around and hoping it will climb. That W knows his stuff, man. Possibly the best money in ceramics that I ever spent. And, weirdly, having a functional, predictable kiln has actually turbocharged my desire to get on with it and build the new kiln — to have the same kind of consistency and reliability, but in more efficient quantities (and without rushing and hiding from passing rainclouds like they’re the plague). I have zero ide if that’s even a remotely reasonable goal for this year; got so close to pouring the slab and starting the shed last summer, but randomness and the potential for minor catastrophe reign over all.
Promo for the sale is gearing up. I did the “reveal” about my guest potters last week (via FB, because where else do people get their news). Cards arrived and look good: a few hundred stamps, stickers and labels to do. Designed and ordered some signs to put out on the nearby roads — something I avoided doing for a decade, but finally decided it’s worth trying. Going to print a new one on canvas to go in the welded old Geil burner ring frame that the inimitable J made for me last December.
First batch of guest pots arrived and they’re even better than I hoped. So strange that this is the first time I’ve seen C’s pots in quantity, after being best friends on the Internet for years. Looking forward to the other two — kind of similar in that I own and love at least a few (4? 6?) pots by each of them, but have never seen a group of 20 in person. Huh. If I didn’t have virtual friends, I’d hardly have any friends at all. Good thing I can call on them in a pinch.
Got the last, 2/3 full bisk going this morning. I really wanted these pots for the sale, so I crammed in the making last week, and speed rushed the drying, and will just barely get them out in time to glaze for number 72 this week. Once again, I see exactly one day of acceptable weather in the forecast, so it’s going to be tight and all the pieces will have to fit together just right. Luck.
Had a good technical discussion with M and B, about blistering glazes and all the ways they can pop up. I had a terrible run of this last year, and they helped me change up my crash cool and shutdown schedule to allow those sensitive glazes more time to settle down before freezing. (Yes, autocorrect: I did mean “Seattle down”. FFS; computers.) Still a few occurrences of it, but I think getting all the SiC dust off the shelves better, and trying to keep that amber glaze away from the edges will help.
Also had a really useful, interesting chat with R and C about blogging; pottery blogs; the ifs and whys and what firs. I freaking love those meta discussions, almost as much as the activity itself. It seems a perpetually open question, even almost ten years and three or four various iterations of it in. Hell, I’m questioning this right now. Like if I should even push it out of Schrodinger’s box, or leave it an indeterminate Draft.
Ah heck — Game of Thrones is back on tonight. Valar Morghulis.