Fresh...

I trust you all had a great Thanksgiving. I'm fresh back from a vacation down in Florida...seeing the family and seeing the Mouse and I'm ready to start breaking out some new stuff. Nancy and I fired the bourry box kiln the week before Thanksgiving and I have yet to see all my goodies. I was gone the day she unbricked and have yet to make it up to the studio due to some fresh snow and work at the university.

We fired the kiln in about 17 - 18 hours once again. She just kept on rising and rising and at the end we put a little more soda in the firebox than we did previously...about 4 pounds or so this time. The picture above is from the beginning of the firing...the kiln was cold and a little damp from all rain we had been having and she steamed and smoked like a bus load of old ladies sitting in front of the slot machines over at the casino. In the end I think it all turned out pretty darn nice...well, from what I have seen at least. Here's a few pics of pieces that will not be getting decals...a really sweet fat belly mug and a nice tall tankard. The tankard is just over 5 inches tall and has a generous 4 finger handle...but also nice and light weight too.

I also have a bunch of these slick little trays...relish tray...butter tray...cheese...whatever...they sure are cool... rectangles and squares all with fancy handles. Here are a few pics of those...I hope to make it up to the studio on Friday to start putting on some new decal images for all the cups, mugs, and trays. By Monday most of these will be hitting the virtual shelves of my online shop. The rest will be rolling into a new project with a friend of mine down in Virginia...Adam Paulek. I will post more about that later but I will give you a little preview to check out...click here. In the mean time, enjoy the pics, do some Christmas shopping (online and with my shop preferably),and walk off those extra pounds from Thanksgiving so you can make room for all the holiday cheer still to come.