Well, today it is chilly and 71 degrees. But the sun is shining and the weathermen are not predicting snow.

This past Saturday I finished my RAKU class. Pictures are up on FaceBook. I still don't know how to put them up here. Phil is going to help me when I get back to the mainland.

I had fun with the clay. Never having done anything like this before, I stayed really simple. Little pinch pots mostly, along with a few soap dishes and other creations. Last Monday we got together at the high school and glazed our pieces. It is very deceptive, because the names of the glazes are not exactly what you think the color will be after it is fired for the last time. I dunked and dipped, and sometime used a paintbrush, until all of my pieces were done. Many of the artists had really elegant pieces and had put lots of time and thought into what they had done. I was quite impressed by everyone's work. But I loved my little guys.

All the pieces had to dry once more after being glazed, so early on Saturday morning, like 7:30AM!!!!, we were once more down at the high school, ready to put our pieces into the kiln which Emillia had made, along with two galvanized trash cans half filled at the time with saw dust. We brought our pieces out from the art room, and they were put into the kiln, so many at a time depending of course on size. The cover was put on, the propane turned on, and the process began. When the kiln had heated up to 1600 degrees, the propane was turned off, the lid removed, and one by one, each piece was taken out, and put into the sawdust and covered with more sawdust. And the lids were put back on. Then the pieces were taken out of the sawdust bins, and put into water to cool rapidly. This process is called reduction if I am correct. It was fascinating to see the different pieces and the colors they had become after being heated up and then cooled down. All of my pieces survived the Raku goddess, with only one having a couple of small pieces broken, but found!

We were there cheering each other on, and taking great delight on seeing the results of everyone's work. There were only a couple of disasters - Jordan unfortunately had just glazed his work, and two of his pots blew up in the kiln, which caused kiln to be shut off, and the broken pieces removed. Fortunately they did not damage any other pieces. One of the teachers had one of his pieces also blow up because he had touched it up that day also. Emillia had made it clear that the glaze had to be dry, and that is why most of us were there on Monday to glaze, to give everything lots of time to dry. So she made the decision, that any more pieces that had been glazed on Saturday were not going into the kiln that day. Since she owns the kiln and uses it at her house, she told everyone she would have them come out and do their pieces later this week.

We left the high school around 6PM, tired and exhausted, and smelling like smoke. I had helped put the sawdust on the pieces as they came out of the kiln. I wasn't willing to try and take them out with the tongs. 1600 degrees is hot, and many of the pieces could have been very easily dropped. However, the teachers (four of them) all knew what they were doing, and everyone's art came out looking great.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself working with clay. Now I will have to get Janice, my daughter-in-law, to teach me to use the wheel. She makes beautiful pottery and sells it at many of the local Virginia fairs and craft shows.

I said that I was going to write about Artie and John - that will be next....