Wednesday 10 March 2010

Three days 'til the big burn

A long day today. Marky Mark, (infected with man-flu poor chap), came up to the workshop this evening and we did the late night's work that we regularly do on a Wednesday. There was another beautiful sunset this evening and we took Digger the Dog for a long walk along the lanes and across the fields. In fact, it's been beautiful all day again, cold, but sunny, distracting, but good for the head. The forecast is for good weather to continue for the next few days, which will make the weekend's firing so much easier.




We spent the evening sorting out the kiln out in readiness for packing. Here's MM cleaning up some second hand kiln shelves that I bought recently.

We put extra insulation into the kiln floor, then tried to work out the most efficient way of using the new shelves, these being different sizes from my old ones, but in much better condition. I'm trying to be more organised with all these things than I have been in the past. Sometimes - all the time - I make the stupidest of mistakes by rushing this part of the process and have pointlessly ruined hundreds of pots over the years. This is the most organised I've ever been - but if you realise how disorganised I usually am, that might not mean too much! Maybe I'll even surprise myself this time.


Here's the inside of the chamber before we started. I've got a few really big pots that'll take up a lot of the space, so I think it'll be a full load. Tomorrow I need to get on with glazing - not my favourite task to say the least. Hannah arrives tomorrow evening by train, it'll be lovely to see her. We'll pack the kiln together on Friday and Saturday, all ready for the big burn on Sunday.

I received in the post, the final copy(complete with french subtitles), of Hollyford Harvest. I travel out to Montpellier to the film festival a week on Friday, which for a man who likes to hide in a shed, is too scary a prospect to even think about - well at least until after I've got the firing out of the way!

My fantastic prize of a carton of healthy breakfasts from Dorset Cereals also arrived today, hurrah! Thanks Dorset Cereals very much. To show my appreciation, I took time this evening to model for a number of promotional photographs for you.











I think I may need some sleep right now, goodnight all.

7 comments:

Dan Finnegan said...

'Honest Doug' is a little scarey...good luck with the firing...is it a fast-fire type kiln with those flues in the floor?

doug Fitch said...

Howdy DF, cheers. It is indeed a variation on the fast-fire, although in fact it doesn't fire very fast at all. Been loving your work recently btw
DF

gz said...

Have a good firing.
Hope you all enjoy it.
Looking forward to seeing the results!

James H said...

Shameless Doug!

First Aero Bubbles and now Dorset Cereals! You've changed! I never thought you would sell out so easily! Ha!

I hope the firing goes well.

All the best

James

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Anonymous said...

the dorset wazir... i love the promotional shots, if they had good sense, they'd use them. i know what you mean about rushing during the glazing phase and ruining pots that otherwise would have been fine. i've had 2 weeks of dullard mistakes that i usually don't make.

cookingwithgas said...

Great shots!
Go Pots!