Thursday, August 20, 2009

Mabey it's time for a beer!

As a measure of how antsy I get when I’m firing, I can actually can hear the kiln sitter go off in the dead of night… while I’m asleep... one story up. For anyone not familiar with the sound… it’s a mere click… that’s it. For me, it’s a Pavlovian sound that triggers a salivary anticipation reflex. I’m desperately hooked on seeing what happens when I mash-up a few weeks of effort in the studio and a day or 2 of experimental chaos.


It’s really a great mix when everything works…

(Bad picture, amazing glaze!)

But it still kind’a sucks when it doesn’t work…

And I’m still learning that merely unexpected isn’t the same as failed.


Most of this kiln load looked spectacular coming out of the kiln, but the plan was for most of it to go through one more low fire to resolve the surface designs, (I do have a plan…). Curvy forms, finicky glazes, and multiple firings… Yea, I know. Friends are telling me I’m making this way more complex than it needs to be, but I just can’t stop myself. I’d be a lucky man if this was symptomatic of manic compulsive behavior, then at least I’d end up with a clean house once in a while. Unfortunately that isn’t the case… I’m just bent.

Mabey it's time for a beer!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

definitely time for a beer, i have the same thing except i can't hear anything and i still will myself to get up in the middle of the night to shut off the exhaust fan after the kiln has stopped firing. got a kiln going as i type this but probably won't be done until 7:00 a.m. drinking wine though. got some cups with that persnickety crawly glaze, not sure i can sacrifice this much work to figure it out, which makes your success seem that much more spectacular. beautiful pieces all the way round even the one you said wasn't a success. maybe you'll have trouble selling it but i still think it looks very cool.

Marta Mangos said...

I love your work:)