I love opening the kiln after a glaze firing. Everything is so colorful, and there are always surprises. It reminds me of Christmas morning as a child, so excited to see what was under the tree, I could hardly sleep the night before. With ceramics, the pieces go into the kiln dry and chalky-feeling, and come out shiny and smooth. It is an amazing metamorphosis.

Yesterday, I was afraid I had over-fired the kiln. I bumped the flame too high there at the end, and it experienced a rapid increase in temperature in about the last ten minutes of firing. So needless to say, I was pretty nervous today while I waited for the kiln to cool down enough to unload it. Luckily, I caught it in time to avoid damaging all but the three thinnest pieces, which had some problems with the colors fading and running (they were in the hotter bottom part of the kiln). All in all, though, a successful firing. I am excited to take pictures of this new work and get all the stuff listed on Etsy!