There's a specific quiet that settles over the studio the night before a firing. Batch 12 has been drying on the shelves for two weeks — eighteen pieces, glazed in three finishes, waiting for their turn in the kiln.
"You can control almost everything about a piece except the eighteen hours it spends in the fire. That's the part I've never gotten used to."
I load the kiln by hand, piece by piece, leaving enough room between each one for the heat to move evenly. It's slow, deliberate work — the kind that doesn't compress no matter how many batches I've done. Once the door closes, the ramp to cone 6 takes about eight hours, followed by a ten-hour soak and an overnight cool. Nobody sees the inside again until the next morning.
This time, the ash glaze on six of the bowls ran further than usual — a good problem. The extra drip means no two came out quite the same, which is exactly what I look for when a batch comes out of the kiln. If they'd all matched perfectly, I'd wonder what went wrong.
Batch 12 goes into the shop this week — eighteen pieces, none repeated, most already spoken for by the people who've been asking since the last firing. If you want first look at Batch 13, the Glaze Notes list is the place to be.
