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The Results are In!

We finally finished our latest wood firing, months and months in the making. What was originally supposed to be a pre-Christmas firing turned into a … March firing :D

Sometimes life and all its unexpected surprises makes firing very very difficult. But, even with all the delays, the results of the firing were wonderful. We tried a lot of new glaze tests, did some experimental pieces and overall were thrilled by results. Here are some pictures of work, hope you enjoy them!

Here are photo’s of my fathers work:

My father also put in some very experimental pieces. These are older celadon glazes fired in an electric kiln, now covered with slip and refired in the gas kiln. We didn’t know what would happen and the chances of them working out was completely unknown. I for one actually thought the slip would peel off and they would leave glaze all over the shelves. Luckily, my dour prediction was wrong and actually the pieces came out very interesting. The slip peeled a little and cracked, but remained on the pots, creating an almost second skin. I think they remind me of snake or lizard skin. What do you think? You can see the initial pot in the kiln in the first pictures, and then the finished results.

I won’t make a prediction about when we’ll fire again, but hopefully it will be soon. My father has over a 100 sanity mugs that need to be fired, so it won’t be long.

In the next post I’ll share photo’s of my newest work.

Thanks for reading!!

~Peter

Firing Update, a Grueling Affair

It's 3:20 am, I'm exhausted, covered in soot, ready for bed and there's no rest in sight. Over the past few days, amid the abundance of snow, we've been working feverishly trying to get all the work ready for one last firing before Christmas. Sunday I was working at 10 am until past midnight, glazing, spraying and cleaning all my work. Today, even with our best efforts, we didn't get the kiln loaded and ready to go until 4:15 pm. So I'm 11 hours into this firing, with a possible 1-3 more hours left to go, (if not more due to the cold weather) and I feel downright drained. But the end is in sight, and without any mishaps, the kiln should be ready to unload Thursday evening. It's moments like this that make me wonder why we do wood firings, and why we don't charge a huge premium for all this extra labour.