–loading the glaze kiln

This is a good week!

We have discovered that if there are 5 shelves of ready-to-go-tile in the studio, then we know we’re heading to the kiln very soon.

And yesterday was that day.

Tracy and I loaded up  the kiln with our wares–into Lori’s lovely, high-fire electric kiln .  It’s always a big day here at Ramona Paloma Studios, whenever we are going in, or taking out of the kiln.  It’s usually the result of many hours of steady work.   The feeling is  excitement, with a cup and a half of anticipation and a big heaping spoonful of satisfaction–shaken, not stirred.

We loaded Tuesday morning.  Lori will usually fire that same night–which she did.   Then, there’s the ramping up to heat, the holding at a certain heat, then the slow cool down….which brings us to Thursday morning when we get to open up the lid to a treasure-chest of surprises.  It’s so birthday-ish for us when we open the kiln, so tomorrow will be a happy day.  (Can I get away with that word–birthday-ish?)

We love the subtlety of the glaze colors before they are fired.  Some of them look so cool that way, we wish we could duplicate those dull, chalky colors in certain designs.  But the true magic happens under that high heat.  We can hardly wait.

Six shelves and a bit.  We saved some room in this load for Lori to place a few things.

Look for more later, as we unveil this firing.