It’s been a long week. I finally have all the work photographed, sorted, titled and captioned. I’ve even sent off the first boxes to galleries and costumers. The photo is from Monday, when I’d been pushing really hard to get off an application to an emerging artist contest thing. I was going to just keep working on stuff on my laptop, but between the soft pillow and the soft cat, I didn’t stand a chance. However, everything is now finally up! Enjoy!
So I just now finished getting everything photographed and uploaded to flickr! (well, almost everything). I had been planning on re-photographing a few things, but decided that it was more important to have everything up now.
Anyway, in order to celebrate all this new work, I’ll be hosting a slightly impromptu opening at my studio tonight. It’s going to be pretty low key, but I will have all of the new work there and on display, along with food and drink of some type. If you’re in the Seattle area, I recommend coming on by! It’s at 218 Florentia st, just on the south end of the Fremont Bridge. We’re in the building with the crazy mural. I’ll be there from 6pm to 8, and maybe till 9. Stop on by!
The kiln has been above 2000 degrees in both front and back for about a day now. It’s been keeping between 2200 and 2300 in front, and we’ve been fighting to get the back to match that. We’ll gain maybe 100 degrees over the next two days. It’s funny how you spend the first day or two working to keep it slow, and now we might have to fight for every 20 degrees.
For the next few days it will mainly be about what the cones are doing, and what the coal bed is like. Cones measure a combination of heat + time, and give us a better idea of how the pots are doing than just temperature. Last I heard, cone 13 is bending in front, and 10 is down in the middle. Not sure about the far back. The kiln will continue to feel hotter and hotter as we go on.
Flame and smoke from the stack with every stoke now. Also, it is a VERY beautiful day.
I’ve been on shift since 4, and right now we’re at 2250 in front, and 2100 in back. I’m on the back of the kiln, and have been fighting with it for the last hour. It went down to 2040. I had to switch to small rapid stokes (3 pieces at once) from larger stokes (7 pieces). I ask Steve, who’s down at the front, as to how many pieces he’s been putting in – “how ever many pieces he #%}^* well feels like”
Second swing shift of the firing. 8:30, and we’re 24 hours into the firing. We’re at 1550 degrees in front, and 900 some in back. It will even out as we go along. Red heat in front.
