Much to do as the school year nears its end

I am so excited to be taking a cone 6 reduction glaze workshop with John Britt this week. The timing is perfect since I was planning my first ever cone 6 reduction firing in the coming weeks. This workshop is going to save me countless hours of testing not to mention fuel. I know my cone 6 glazes in oxidation but really have no idea what will happen to them in reduction. And since my gas kiln is so big (18 cubic feet), it takes me 6-8 weeks to make enough work to fill it. I could easily have ended up with a lot of wasted work.

So I wake up at 5:30 this morning wondering how many bisque loads I have to fire before the glaze fire. The answer is at least 3 and since I won't be home during the day, it means firing at night. My runt of a kiln has no computer so I must actually be awake to flip the switches. So I'll be moonlighting in the studio this week. Potters do it all the time.

My best laid plans generally don't include the little unknown events, like needing to go to my grandmother's this weekend to pick up some furniture or all the little end-of-year activities that our school has planned. This happens to me every year so I have resigned myself to my steep learning curve. I could probably recycle this post next year.

I could actually be busier. This time last year, I was making chess pieces with my daughter's 4th grade class. 20 students made 32-34 pieces each. You do the math. My thinking cap was on, and with advice from my college studiomate, we slipped half and single fired them.

I'll try to post some pictures of the workshop and my current activities. I've been sick and then spent the weekend trying to tame the weeds in the perennial garden without getting poison ivy again. I'm claiming success this time.