See the casseroles?  I made these last week. 

It was a very busy weekend last weekend, so I didn't have time to do much pottery making.  I managed to throw a few mugs and went back on Sunday afternoon to get handles on them.  Jeff and I had been gone most of the day on Saturday, so Lady dog was left alone.  To make it up to her, I took her with me on Sunday afternoon thinking that she might enjoy some time with me hanging out.  But no.  Lady hates the pottery studio for some reason.  

She stood by the door whimpering.

If I talked to her, she gave me this look.

I brought her into the work area, tied her leash to my wheel so she couldn't get in trouble, and she did this.  

Finally I gave up.  The mugs were too wet to attach handles (and were still on the soft side Tuesday afternoon when I went back to try again - very, very weird).  I unloaded the kiln, and there wasn't much else that I could do.  

I did get these mugs which turned out nice after being re-fired.  I really like how the specks in the clay showed up.

Like I said, since Lady was so miserable, I took her for a walk.  She LOVES to walk and was finally happy. 

Smart dog.  It was a very nice afternoon and it would have been a shame to miss out on it.

I Made It!

Continuing the "Will-the-Masks-Get-Done-In-Time-For-the-October-Windows" story...

My friends at the gallery all pitched in and glazed everything they could so we could fire a glaze fire.  (Thank you to Allen, Gail, and Lisa!) I got the message that all was ready for me to load and fire on Thursday afternoon as I was getting ready for the Art Walk.  Correction - I was at the studio but I was about to go watch the Shelby High School Homecoming Parade.  The parade is always in Uptown Shelby the Thursday afternoon before the Homecoming Football game.  I left work in time to get myself parked and to meet my grandchildren for the parade.  I got some love, we danced to the marching band, and we waved at my students who were riding in the parade.  All in all, a good time.  It was all over in plenty of time for me to get set up and organized for the Art Walk.  I even had time to eat a bite so I didn't pass out from hunger.

The crowd for the Art Walk was not as big as we'd had before.  I think the weather kept people home.  Or everyone was at the Cleveland County Fair.  I only had three visitors, but that was really OK. I had a chance to actually talk to everyone and I got some good work done.

First off, I loaded the kiln.  Then I threw a few things.  Texture was the focus of the evening - for mugs, three bowls, and one thing that was going to be a bowl but ended up more like a vase.  I'm really not sure what that is.  I liked the shape, so I quit messing with it.

At the end of the night, I started the kiln.  When I checked on it a little before 9 am the next morning, it was still REALLY hot.  Notice the glow under the lid and the temperature reading on the computer.  It took a little longer to fire this time, but I think that was probably because I packed it pretty tight. 

So all day on Friday, I kept checking to see if it was cooled down enough to open.  Normally I don't feel particular stress about getting stuff out, but I had to have those masks to the gallery on Saturday and there was still a little work to do to finish them after firing.  

Finally on Saturday morning, things were cool enough to unload.  Here's what I saw when I opened the lid.  

The top layer wasn't as tightly packed as the next couple were.  Obviously not everything pictured here is mine.  

This is a lot of mugs!  Again, not all mine.  I only had 22 mugs in this fire.  Only 22.  Who says that?  But yes, I had made 22 mugs over the past few weeks.  Almost everything blue in this shot is mine.  

Here are the rest of my mugs and the two masks.  They survived the firing!  Yay!  Both masks lived, so I got them finished up.  

First with wires in the back for hanging

Then a little hot glue to attach some leaves to one.

And the finished masks!

This might be interesting....

Here's the before (you saw this shot last week).

And the after for all the mugs that were mine.

Floating blue, variegated base blue, somekyndabaloo, and falls creek blue chino.

There were some other nice pieces (I thought) in this firing...

Utensil holders/vases

Pitchers 

I'm really liking the blue one on the left!  The textured ones are nice too.  They turned out as expected.  The blue one I wasn't sure about.

Lidded jars 

In all the waiting around for things to cool, I made a couple of platters.  

One with a lizard

One with a frog

And I finished the mugs and bowls from Thursday night.