As predicted, last week was indeed a busy one. I fired a cone 6/7 load on Monday and a cone 10 on Wednesday. My last cone 10 load took over 14 hours to fire, so I woke up at 2 am to start firing. As luck would have it, I was so tired that I neglected to cut back the air at the start of body reduction (although I am uncertain why I was doing that). The result was a slow down in rise, but not the usual drop that takes an additional 2 hours to make up. That should have been my first clue, eh? 
I looked back over my notes as well as John Britt's and Val Cushing's firing schedules and realized that what I thought was a mistake was probably the correct course of action. In the end, the firing took only 9 1/2 hours with good reduction. I guess that means I can cut 2 hours off my cone 6 firings also.
Once again I was very impressed with the cone 6/7 glazes in reduction. Chris Wolff's Plum (above) came out very nice (although my photo makes it look more red than it truly is) and a couple more of my cone 10 glazes are nearly identical at cone 6/7. Considering I ended up with at least 5-6 shelves of Zella Stone (cone 7-10) work that did not fit, I have the option of firing at either temperture. I thought I was done firing for the year, but as long as I am halfway there, I may as well fill 'er up and squeeze one more firing in!
While I was firing, Brenda helped me paint the gallery. Before it was a sort of Colonial blue and the faux ceiling beams were painted as white as the ceiling. We painted the walls a muted yellow and white washed them. Then we painted the beams brown and added some darker stain on top. The result is a room that appears much larger and taller.
I feel good about so many pots coming out well. In the photo they are just piled all over the tables. I have quite an inventory and am considering approaching some galleries about carrying my work. I've never done this before, and I'll admit to being a little nervous. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report soon.
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