Finally Finished!

I am just about breaking my arm patting myself on the back today for FINALLY getting the last course of brick on the stack. I stopped 2 courses short when I rebuilt last year, because previously the kiln drew a little too hard; but the new version drew not enough. Or sometimes didn't; some firings I had with the shorter stack were perfect, but two others were...well, let's say less perfect. I knew since the last firing, in December, that it had to be done - I couldn't keep rolling the dice. (Rolling the dice is a bad business plan. Write that down.) I was just waiting for enough of the snow & ice to melt away so it wouldn't be a suicide mission.

I'm a little nervous of heights. Not phobic, but maybe a little more cautious than your average person. Doug, on the other hand, spent his high school and college years doing tree work with his father, and has no natural fear of heights. He would have gladly stacked that last layer for me, but his lack of caution makes it even more stressful to see him just casually clamber around up there just like he's on the ground, than it is to just do it myself. He did come out and hold the ladder for me; I also felt like, if I fell, I wanted someone right handy to call 911.

I got lucky, and acquired the brick for free: Portland Pottery is rebuilding the bag walls in their large gas kiln. The brick were a little rough but perfectly adequate for my needs. On a related note, I am having an urge do grab some of those broken brick and collage all over them. They'd make good bookends, maybe. There's something so wonderful (in my imagination, at least) about the coarse broken edges and the decoupaged floral images.

But! One project at a time. Or, well: maybe two. Or three. Definitely no more than four.😀

Maybe I'll finish the staircase today, load tomorrow, and fire Sunday.