Thank you to all those who attended my kiln opening on Saturday!  It was a very successful day.  Above is the 50th fired piece, which I fired for my visitors during the afternoon.  My assistant, Katie did the drawing and the winner is Beth McAllister of Alexander, NC.  I sent her an email that she had won and her response is so cute I had to publish it (with her permission of course):

Steven!
This is so great! To give you an idea of what goes on with my 20-something girls when something awesome happens:
O MY GOD, O MY GOD, O MY GOD, O MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!
However, as their respectable and somewhat shy mother, I must simply say that this is quite a lovely thing to happen.  And inside my calm demeanor I am screaming, “O MY GOD, O MY GOD, O MY GOD!!!!!”

I can’t wait to see what piece you’ve chosen.
Thank you so much!
~Beth McAlister

I look forward to seeing everyone at next year’s Kiln Opening event.  I haven’t decided on the date yet, but will keep you posted as next summer approaches.

Best regards to all,

Steven

Actually it was about the 70th firing with all of the ones I re-fired.  I didn’t post yesterday because when I got around to it, I was too pooped to pop.  I’ve attached a shot of another Winged Vessel, which I think turned out quite nice.  This will be the last post before the event on Saturday.  I hope you have enjoyed the photos and comments.  And, of course, I hope you all can come to my opening.  I’ll be posting a shot of the 50th fired piece on Monday along with the winner’s name.

No pictures today, as I didn’t have time to document anything new.  Did the re-fires that I talked about yesterday and am satisfied with the results.  Leslie, my part time assistant was here today and she worked hard to get my studio cleaned up and organized.  She also helped prep some of the pieces for firing.  She’s really a great help!  I promise to have a photo or two tomorrow.  I hope everyone reading this can come to the event.  There’s really some nice, new work!

First, here’s one of the ikebana containers for my kiln opening with an arrangement by my wife, Lynn.  Regarding today, I had one very successful firing, but then the rest were kind of duds.  So tomorrow will be re-fires with the hope of the lemons becoming lemonade.  That’s one of the neat things about raku–there’s always hope tomorrow!

Some days are like this.  I was able to complete 2 firings, but had to run errands this afternoon, so had to leave it at that.  I’ve attached a photo of a piece I completed a couple of weeks ago called Blue Wave, as the ones’ I fired today are not photographed yet.  I have about 10 more firings to do for the Opening a week from tomorrow.  That number should be manageable, as long as I don’t have too many interruptions.  As I’ve heard said, “Plan ahead, but don’t count on anything.”

Here’s the latest winged vessel, which I fired today.  It’s also the largest–18″high x 20″long x 8″wide.  Actually, I only did one firing today.  I had my annual physical this morning and then was volunteer bartender at the Southern Highland Craft Guild function this afternoon/evening.  Yes, sometimes life interferes with studio work.  Hopefully, Lynn will be able to make an arrangement in one of the ikebana containers that I finished, so I can feature a photo of it tomorrow or over the weekend.

This is the golden ovoid piece that I talked about in the last two blogs.  It was raku fired 4 times, adding more glaze before each subsequent firing.  I’m really excited with the results!  I  also rakued four Ikebana flower containers and a winged vase today.  I’ll have an image of one of the ikebana containers later in the week, complete with a flower arrangement.  Lynn returned late this afternoon from helping her 95 year old mother with doctors’ appointments.  Her mom still lives by herself and even occasionally takes her car out for a spin. (What is DOT thinking about, issuing licenses to 95 year olds?)  Anyway, I’m hopeful Lynn will make a beautiful arrangement for me to photograph.  And, yes the end is in sight.  I’ve got lots of nice work (I’m such a modest guy), so I hope you all can come to my opening and enjoy it.

Four firings today, one of which produced this Winged Vase.  Also, had 2 re-fires of the golden ovoid from yesterday and the last time was the charm.  I added one of my reticulated glazes for the last firing and wall-ah, I beautiful pot appeared when I opened the reduction chamber.  Yep, just like Christmas!  I’m waiting for it to cool off and will get an image of it up tomorrow.

Saturday the rain fizzled, so I worked in the yard AND did a couple of firings.  But, today it rained steadily for 5 hours and I found about 1 inch in my rain gauge.  Boy did we need it!  My friend and neighbor, Sculley helped me change the implements on the tractor, replacing the bush hog with the scrape blade.  I scraped the road as soon as the rain stopped and now visitors to my kiln opening hopefully will have a fairly smooth road to travel.  I also did 3 firings and got two more winged vessels and a golden ovoid rakued.  I may fire the ovoid again, as the surface is experimental and I’d like to see what else might happen.  I’ve attached a photo of a wild altered piece I finished last Friday.  More tomorrow.

Here’ the piece I fired yesterday with the new glaze surface.  I’m calling it “Golden Ovoid” and it’s about 14 inches wide.  I fired 3 more pieces today and re-fired one that has continued to be a little short of what I want–it turned out very good today, so I think I’ll leave it at that.  I had to pick up supplies at Highwater Clays and go to the gym for my spinning class, so firing was cut a little short.  Tomorrow I return to the gym for a yoga class, followed by an hour of pilates.  Then, there’s yard work to do here in the afternoon, so I may not write again until Monday.  We’re getting our first rain in weeks and hopefully it’ll continue tomorrow, which means I’ll be able to put off the yard work and have fun in the studio.  At any rate, more on Monday.