Making pots is relaxing...right?

I get a kick out of people not familiar with ceramics saying to me when they learn I'm a potter, wow, it must be so relaxing. Yes, at times it certainly can be quite therapeutic and peaceful, but there are other times when it is beyond stressful. I encountered moments of the latter this weekend when glaze firing a very full kiln. It has taken me months to produce, bisque fire, and glaze everything in there, yes my kiln is huge. Things were going just fine for the whole firing up until the last 10 minutes. I heard a loud pop and then what sounded like heavy dust raining down, a noise not common when firing. So this is where the fun began. It was 2 a.m. and I was exhausted to say the least. All I wanted to do was peek in the lid and make sure my entire kiln full of work was not destroyed by little particles of kiln brick or a pot that exploded settling onto the melted glaze. But, of course when the kiln is over 2000 degrees, there is no opening it until at least a day later let alone when it is glowing hot. I tried to sleep, but visions of what I would see when I opened it were running through my head. Luckily the next day I was too sleep deprived to worry.When I opened it up this morning, after a much needed yoga class I was pleasantly surprised. Everything was okay. The kiln wall did break off a bit and it looks like some particles fell to the floor, but amazingly nothing was affected. I guess there is something to be said for embracing the unknown. Regardless if it was a total disaster or not, there was nothing I could do.
The most exciting discovery from this firing were some new glaze colors, bright fresh green to replace the chartreuse that was finicky. A lovely coral red, salmon, and my favorite bright turquoise blue which will make their appearance in my next kiln. Until then, I'll be posting lots of new work in my shop, like these terracotta planters from my old body of work, heavily discounted.

Glazing

In between a visit with family, busy times at my day job, and blowing off some steam by enjoying the nice weather of spring, I've been glazing. It used to be my least favorite part of making ceramics, but I'm coming to terms with it lately. Although I love making and testing new glazes, the actual task of glazing used to be the hardest part.
When I was working with terracotta soon after college, I did not have the studio space needed to formulate my own glazes. That meant everything I glazed had to be painted on with multiple coats. Very tedious. It was a big adjustment from school where I had big buckets of everything and pieces could either be dipped or poured.
With the switch to stoneware last year, I was a mad scientist again testing and retesting glazes until I came up with about 10 colors. In a way, I envy potters who just use one glaze color. But, I love to see a rainbow of earthy tones accentuated by the white clay. And the chemistry involved with glaze formulation is fascinating. It is very similar to baking....measuring out specific amounts of powdered materials and making big batches of batter-like glazes. Not to mention, wearing a respirator is pretty darn sexy.Part of the reason I'm enjoying glazing more is that I've found colors I absolutely love. It turns out many of my designs need to be hand painted such as the monkey and bird. That makes it much more time consuming to glaze, but the end results make me very happy.

It's hard not to smile when you look at this monkey, don't you think?