Gettin' ready...

That's right, Nancy and I are getting ready to fire the train kiln ...loading on Friday and starting bright and early Saturday morning. We have a lot of work to fire! This will be the last wood firing before the big Potters' Studio Tour coming up on the weekend of October 17 and 18. Nothing subtle about that bit of advertisement, so if you are around the area please stop on by and say hello. This will be my third year on the tour with Nancy at Little Mahoning Creek Pottery and each year I am amazed and thrilled with all the good pottery loving folk who come up to visit, buy some fine wood fired work, and witness the colorful change of seasons in the greater metropolitan area of Smicksburg, PA and the even more remote outer lying areas nearby.

While I was watching my pots dry, and they were drying awful slow due to our current weather, I snapped off a few pictures of the mounting work. I have a bunch of pieces on the top shelf, some waiting to go in the bisque kiln and some waiting to be glazed. Nancy also has an army of tall mugs and cups waiting in line for the same. On the table behind the rack I have serving dishes, cups and mugs that are in need of some slip and a little sexy shino. When I wasn't out admiring the trees and their impressive show of Fall color, we necked in the back chamber and added another foot to the chimney of the train kiln in order to improve the draw. I will be scraping down shelves tomorrow evening and turning up the bisque...get those pots fired so that I can get to glazing on Friday morning....I'm looking forward to firing and looking forward to seeing you on the Potters' Tour too.