8-9-10

I am so excited that these are finished, and 11, 12, and 13 are in the works.  This is week 13, and I hope after this week I'll be back on track to make a pitcher each week.  Not working - not throwing, trimming, not much glazing- has been a drag.  I'm happiest if I'm busy.  Take away my pottery, my knitting, and, frankly, the sunshine, and I'm not the happiest of all campers. Slowly but steadily. . . .

Pitcher 8 is one of the tallest things I think I've ever made.  I used my kiku mon stamp and cobalt wash (it is cobalt oxide, frit, and water I think.  don't quote me).  Very happy with it.

Pitcher 9 is perhaps my favorite so far.  But it did not like me.  I glazed it with my not-frequently-used celadon glaze (not frequently used because it crawls like crazy, doesn't want to stick if there's any moisture in the piece, and fires spotty) and it came out of the kiln just a hot mess.  I put more glaze on the very bare spots and refired it.  The glaze did run towards the foot, but I love this deep celadon color.  The glaze may be too thick (it probably is because it has never ever been this dark before), and after I finish this gallon I currently have, I'm retiring it.  But I use it so infrequently that won't happen for a year or three.  I have very little knowledge about glaze chemistry, but this glaze has been lovely and ill-behaved since I began using it in 2001, and as it is a commercial glaze, I have very little idea about how to fix it's issues, but it seems to be not related to clay body, as many of my other glaze problems have been.

Pitcher 10 turned out exactly the way I'd envisioned.  Happy.  May make more of these for sale once my arms are better.  It's a very springy happy eggy thing.

I hope to get back here later this week with more, and I never did take my shop out of vacation mode last week, but I also hope to do that before the end of this week.  The bees are settling in nicely.  I taped their entry shut for 24 hours (they managed to get out anyway, through a crack in the viewing window that I should caulk closed from the outside), and they cozied in for the cold spell we've been having over the weekend, cleaning the hive and eating the syrup and taking short orientation flights around the hive.  I'm happy to see them flying around on sunny afternoons, and my neighbors are excited to have a hive back in the yard, as well.

Thanks for reading.