Happy New Year

L'shana tovah... hebrew for Happy New Year...!

Shana Tova (pronounced [ʃaˈna toˈva]) is the traditional greeting on Rosh Hashanah which in Hebrew means "A Good Year." (שנה טובה)basically...

Today is Rosh Hashana.

LShana tova tikoteivu- may you all be inscribed and sealed for a good year!
P.S. I love to say "tikoteivu"... I just do.

Actually enjoyed a lovely sermon today referring a lot to Buddhist concepts...
Really makes me want to start the year off RIGHT...
When I say "RIGHT", I mean PRESENT. AWARE. etc.

SO... here is a photo of one of my wood fire POTs with a wood fired BREAD that my friend brought back from Maine for MOI!!!!
Love...

Inspiration Thursday

Also known as spending too much time surfing the internet...
BUT yielding some amazing results:
From The Met's Asian Art Collection:
Wine Pot
China
Qing dynasty, later Transitional period
ca. 1644–83
Porcelain with colored glazes
4 1/8 in. (10.5 cm)

A few close ups

Woodfiring: Stage 2:Results

Too tired to get detailed now but here we have them!
Wood, Wood/Salt/Soda:

WoodFiring: Stage 1

OK, So here is the The Noborigama Wood/Salt/Soda Fire Kiln at Baltimore Clayworks!
Jim Dugan is the red headed guy you see who totally rebuilt this sucker a few months ago(before the earthquake!!!) and is the MASTER. You can also see Laurie Erdman ,such a cool chick, who arranged for the group of us, mainly her potter friends from The DC/VA area and ME, to work on firing this kiln together this weekend! Additionally, there is Jeremy Wallace, Jim's assistant who is a major "woodfire head"(my new name for the pseudo "cult" of woodfire lovers) too.
We all came to Baltimore Clayworks on Friday morning to glaze and load... and then we bricked up the doors...
Saturday morning, those of us on the first shift(me, Al Pellenberg, Laurie), started by mudding up the doors that to seal the kiln... get the fire started... preparing the wood for loading and moving ash in and getting the stoking going... It got busier around 4 and by 5:30 my shift was over...
and it was getting pretty CRACKLY before I left...(last photo)
So, unfortunately, I cannot report about what happens through the night... as I will need to try that shift next time(if there is a next time...).I do know that it requires A LOT of stoking through the night until about 7am...
and that was this morning...
SO... I will report back when it cools by Wednesday morning and I trek back to Baltimore for the opening... very nervous and excited... I will deal with the results, however they may be...