the waiting game

Patience. I am having to learn patience.

I loaded my kiln with glazed pieces, all ready to fire my first glazed load in my
new kiln.... only to realize that I would have to stay up till 2am to safely do it.

I wonder if the ware being cold from sitting in the kiln all night will make a difference...
I wonder if this firing will really take only 6-8 hours? Regardless, I will have to wait until at least tomorrow to unload it.
I wonder how I will muster the patience to wait until it is cooled down enough before unloading it?
I wonder if this load will say "PING" the way my load did last year?

I wonder if I mixed the glaze right... if it is going to crack or bubble...
in fact, I know I mixed one of the glazes wrong.
I'm pretty sure it was a green tint, that was meant to be added to white.... I'm pretty sure I accidentally made it all up, and then noticed the consistency was wrong... and then did some crappy math and added it to all of my white, and then figured it was still not watered down enough....

So after all that math, and weighing and figuring, I ended up with a semi-random mix of white, clear and green tint. I think the proportions were close to right. I guess we'll see.
And then when I went to dip some items in clear glaze, it was too think and lumpy... I had to wash them off, and try again. We'll see what happens with that too.

Come tomorrow I could be unloading a batch of messed up stuff! Or really beautiful stuff.... there's no way to know.... and so I wait.

I am a Potter

Alright. Here it is. I'm whole heartedly embracing it. I am a potter.

I have an ever evolving space in which to create. I have the wheel, the kiln, the muck buckets, boxes of clay, buckets and tools, and mixers and mess. I have shelves full of work of various levels... some of which I examine, notice I could do better and muck. Also filling the shelves is work which children have made. Volcano cups and bowls of varying beautiful sizes! A food dish someone made for their beloved pet.

And my latest love, fairy houses! I get to use the wheel for the bottoms. I get to carve in the doors and windows, and hollow out a place to slide the candle in. I get to use table work to make the tops, and I get to use nature as my inspiration. I get to use brightly colored underglazes to bring them to life! Getting to use so many techniques tickles my brain, it makes me happy. Brings me peace.

Keep checking in here as I will be posting pictures of different projects, ramblings, and wonderings...