Monday, June 11, 2012

Out with the Old

The kiln yard is finally clear of the rusting steel shell of the old kiln. Two nice men, one of whom looked like the Incredible Hulk, the other like sunshine-fresh Mr. Clean, carried it off yesterday free of charge. The kiln yard looks, if not clean, at least spacious: gone is the maze of rusty hulks to negotiate while carrying boards or buckets. As I understand it, Misters Clean and Hulk will sell the scrap steel, and everybody's happy.

The worst pots from the last firing, way too many of them, I've smashed with a hammer. There were many seconds: bowls with kiln kisses resembling wads of spittle in the middle; a casserole that looks perfect until you turn it to see a crawl spot the size of a dollar bill; mugs that have (now ground) kiln drippings right on the lip. These I've tagged to sell when I put out the front-yard shelves again: if you live in Augusta, stop by. There will be a lot of offerings this week.
I compared the last firing to a bad kiss; and (as a commenter pointed out) like kissing, a bad one won't stop us, because  the good ones are so very good. The keepers are priced and sorted, and I have nearly enough ware for a bisque already.

So I'll have an Altoid, apply a bit of lipstick - not too much! - and pucker up again. I have a pretty good hit rate for toads-to-princes, so I am undaunted.

4 comments:

Barbara Rogers said...

Oh do I know the hammer routine...and then I threw the shards into a bucket, thinking they'd be fun to make a mosaic with my grandkids with them. But last week while working with some broken clay pieces, I cut my fingers all over the place on glaze edges. So the mosaic idea has now gone on the back burner.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, the sound of HammerWare on its return to the Source. It's so final and satisfying. No more of the edgy considering that, well, maybe someone would like it when I know it's so awful and it has MY name on it.

Aleixo said...

You are very wise Lori!
Congrats and thank you for this blog full of your precious thoughts... very valuable for a noob like me!
One kiss from Spain ;-)

Quietly Otaku said...

I always find glaze firings to be a mixed experience, sometimes it just goes right and other times so very wrong. Good luck for your next one!