Rats!

The ominous noises my old iMac was making on Thursday were indeed portents: the hard drive gave up the ghost yesterday. I am at a borrowed computer for this post but I will probably be absent from my blogs for a while! (not to mention my new fling, Etsy!) I was lucky to get the warning two days in advance, as my hubby was able to back up everything we needed, so nothing was lost, except, you know, the computer. Oh, well, I really need to be glazing: more than 70 of the 100 Mugs will be in the firing that I'm loading on Thursday. This should be a very exciting firing: I'm also using two new glazes and a new sig.

I once read a potter (forget who, sorry) who wrote that we ought to test a new glaze in every firing, and I thought, "yeah, right, like I feel like adding one more thing to the pre-firing to-do list." But he was right, for two reasons: 1)If you don't test glazes when you are firing, when will you do it? When you aren't firing? How's that gonna work? 2)Having an unknown factor in the firing makes it much more intriguing. Here's a thought: if the kiln sits cool but full for longer than it needs to -- in other words, if I am not rushing to unload -- it's time to change things up. 

I can get a used iMac for around $80, plus a whole boatload of shipping costs. Not too bad...it'll just take a while. See you then!