Because of the its size, and the travel involved, I decided to only use the big kiln when I have a lot of stuff to fire. This means slower turnaround times, but gives me an incentive to make stuff on a larger scale.

Earlier this week, I finally decided I had made enough greenware to make it worth the trip. Two days ago, Orin and I carefully loaded the backseat with well-padded boxes of goodies, and off we went. Everything survived the drive intact, which pleased me very much!

My dad’s house is in a very picturesque setting, right over the levee from the Sacramento River. While I unloaded the boxes and snapped some photos, Orin climbed the tree in the front yard.

Then he helped me load the kiln, which I think took at least a half an hour to do.

It takes my kiln about 8½ hours to heat up to Cone 07 (roughly 1800 degrees Fahrenheit), and then probably another eight or so hours to cool down again. We took the time to relax and have a little “vacation” of sorts.

Then, yesterday afternoon, everything was ready to come out again.

I remember, when I was in ceramics classes, my instructor often said that our ware would be hard to recognize after it came out of bisque fire, because everything shrinks, and items sometimes warp, crack, etc. And sometimes things sat around for so long before firing that you’d even forget you made them! Indeed, I remember occasionally not knowing my own work, and only realizing it was mine when I saw my signature on the bottom. It’s hard to say whether or not that has changed simply because, you know, everything in the kiln is made by me now. I would rather think it’s because my work is more defined now, because at the end of the day my work simply looks like mine. Which is a good thought to have.

And now I’m back home again, with my bisqueware in three big boxes, waiting to be glazed and fired again. I really like making lists, so here’s a nice numerical rundown of what I brought back today:

• 6 burnished white stoneware plates, for me to try some maiolica-style illustrations
• 1 special white stoneware plate with a complete poem stamped into it
• 12 (4 sets) descending canvas vases, in a couple different size variations
• 10 ice cream bowls in both red and white stoneware
• 6 wee succulent pots, significantly larger than that first prototype
• 18 wee bowls in red stoneware clay. I’m going to be streamlining my wee bowl line so that they come in two standard sizes; these ones will be the smaller size
• 102 flat porcelain buttons, in various shapes, sizes and textures.
• 31 rings; hopefully, counted among this number are the myriad custom sizes I’ve been trying to get for the last couple months
• 3 new button molds
• 29 poem drop pendants
• 5 big beads. My beads have suddenly decided to get popular, possibly due to some advertising I’m doing on Ravelry, so I’m planning on making a lot more of ‘em in the near future
• 22 big shank buttons. I’m really excited about these. I redesigned my shank buttons so they’re bigger, and made entirely of clay, rather than metal in the back. I’m making them from molds of vintage earrings.

Also: I’m now making all my little ware (beads, buttons, rings, pendants) out of porcelain, for extra strength and durability.

Entering is so simple. All you have to do is go here, read the rules, and fill out the simple entry form. That’s it! You can also increase your chances of winning by going to all the other participating sellers’ sites, and filling out the forms there as well. You can enter the giveaway once per site. You have until May 13th to apply.

EDIT: Signups are now closed, and winners will be announced soon. Good luck everyone!

Good luck!

As of when I first put this up, a couple of the pendants’ quote sources hadn’t been fully identified; they’re in my notebook rather than my computer, and I haven’t had a chance to look them up. So here we go:

	“The lip of the glass gleams in the moonlight like a round razor — how can I lift it to my lips? however much I thirst — how can I lift it — Do you see?” –”Moonlight Sonata,” Yiannis Ritsos
	“She slept the world. You singing god, how did you so perfect her that she did not crave first to be awake? See, she arose and slept.” –”Sonnets to Orpheus,” Rainer Maria Rilke
	“I love you for your hands that calm and bless, The perfume of your sad and slow caress, The avid poison of your subtle kiss.” –”Sonnet Macabre,” Theodore Wratislaw
	“looking down on empty streets, all she can see are the dreams all made solid are the dreams all made real” –”Mercy Street,” Peter Gabriel
	“in our culture, where red is a warning, and men threaten each other with final violence: I will drink your blood. Your kiss is for them” –”Sleeping Beauty,” Olga Broumas

	“We have in our cross-hairs your figs, almonds, dates, your pome- paradise, your orchard“ –”A duet with Rev Zalman who used to sing,” Margaret Aho
	“a sign of betrayal, your red lips suspect, unspeakable liberties as we cross the street, kissing” –”Sleeping Beauty,” Olga Broumas
	“…we who are not ill, Are not old, are not mad; we who have been young and who still Have reason to live, knowing that all is not told.” –”Teaching to Shoot,” Valentine Ackland
	“What it felt like: first it was the kiss. Look at me, he said. And then it was the floor” –”Foraging,” Jean Valentine
	“And they are with us in the land. We remember how they fought each other at those places they marked– It is dreamtime there.” –”Lalai (Dreamtime),” Sam Woolagoodjah
	“We sing this jingle. Lost in the sound of the man. The moon doesn’t rest with me. Silent. The moon is a language and I am silent.” –”NIGHT JINGLES,” Mark Fitzpatrick
	“One night I will say to it: Heart, be still, and it will.” –”The Woman Who Could Not Live With Her Faulty Heart,” Margaret Atwood
	“Thy soul Grown delicate with satieties, Atthis.” –”Imerro,” Ezra Pound
	“A tree ascended there. Oh pure transendence! Oh Orpheus sings! Oh tall tree in the ear! And all things hushed. Yet even in that silence a new beginning, beckoning, change appeared.” –”Sonnets to Orpheus,” Rainer Maria Rilke
	“where the brittle gods are kept, the relics of what we have destroyed, our holy and obsolete symbols.” –”Elegy for the Giant Tortoises,” Margaret Atwood
	“and it was not from any dullness, not from fear, that they were so quiet in themselves, but from just listening. Bellow, roar, shriek seemed small inside their hearts…” –”Sonnets to Orpheus,” Rainer Maria Rilke
	“Hell has no fury like the fury of women. Scorned from birth by their mothers who must deliver the heritage: signs, methods, artifacts, what-they-remember” –”Maenad,” Olga Broumas
	“I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night dreaming evil, I have done my hitch over the plain houses, light by light” –”Her Kind,” Anne Sexton
	“his smile takes up no space at all and I think, ‘Look how death hangs on him,’ that Great Big Hug.” –”INRI,” Logan Antill
	“A tree ascended there. Oh pure transendence! Oh Orpheus sings! Oh tall tree in the ear! And all things hushed. Yet even in that silence a new beginning, beckoning, change appeared.” –”Sonnets to Orpheus,” Rainer Maria Rilke
	“The thing that eats the heart comes wild with years. It died last night, or was it wounds before, But somehow crawls around, inflamed with need, Jingling its medals at the fang-scratched door.” –”The Thing That Eats the Heart,” Stanley Kunitz
	“Aphrodite of the foam, Who hast given all good gifts, And made Sappho at thy will Love so greatly and so much” –”Sappho: 100 Lyrics,” Bliss Carman
	“Gather out of star-dust Earth-dust, Cloud-dust, Storm-dust, And splinters of hail, One handful of dream-dust Not for sale.” –”Dream Dust,” Langston Hughes
	“looking down on empty streets, all she can see are the dreams all made solid are the dreams all made real“ –”Mercy Street,” Peter Gabriel
	“We had nothing to learn; together we improved on all the world’s wide learning, and bettered it, and loved.” –”Teaching to Shoot,” Valentine Ackland
	“Power and beauty and knowledge,– Pan, Aphrodite, or Hermes,– Whom shall we life-loving mortals Serve and be happy?” –”Sappho: 100 Lyrics,” Bliss Carman
	“And because I am happy. & dance & sing. They think they have done me no injury: And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King, Who made up a heaven of our misery.” –”The Chimney Sweeper,” William Blake
	“Even my passive eyes transmute everything I look at to the pocked black and white of a war photo, how can I stop myself“ –”It Is Dangerous to Read Newspapers,” Margaret Atwood
	“They watch you from hiding: you are a chemical smell, a cold fire, you are giant and indefinable” –”Cyclops,” Margaret Atwood
	“Through waning afternoons we glide the watery peripheries of love. A silence, a quietude falls. Above us–-the sagging pavilions of clouds.” –”The Peripheries of Love,” Michael Burch