It's the last step, mostly, receiving finished pots from the glaze firing. A culmination of the process maybe, and a productive success, or failure. But very definitely, my favorite step in the process is the beginning. Shaping pots on the wheel is the point where clay becomes pot, form rises from potential, "nothing" becomes something. It's a thrill, and a pleasure in the hands.So why is the end of this process so much pleasure too?
And I am very pleased, even though all the pots from a firing load don't come out well. It helps if they do, if I can feel some pride and success. This leaf is 12 inches across and all the texture came out clear in the glaze!
Wow, those colors! It's my favorite rutile blue glaze, applied thin and in a lucky spot in the kiln. Breakfast tea today in this cup, and I kept turning it and looking at it.
Even if a pot is trash, or a "second" for sale cheaply, or just OK, I am pleased to get it; there's something new in it, and perhaps a good idea to follow in another pot.
Boring, but the shape has possibility.
Opening a shared kiln is a community enterprise, interesting to everybody. We care about each others' pots. We admire, encourage, steal ideas. It's good to look at pots, to handle them, discuss them. A shelf of new pots in a classroom or community studio is a happy traffic jam.
And it's not really an end to any process. Some pots need further work.
The text was illegible on these cups; something ran. So I rewrote the text with underglaze (in a squeeze bottle) and refired with a bisque load. OK now.
Ouch, the big leaf has a crack. Can I salvage it? A further challenge.
Almost all pots have some further life in keeping, gift, sale and use. And each one contains ideas, to try again and differently. There's never an end.
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