For you.

12/24/12

Merry Christmas to all.
Live, love, laugh and enjoy.
Eat, drink and be Mary, John or George...
Peace in your house.
M

Merry Christmas

snow and high hells

Really I meant high heels but when I wrote this out I liked how it sounded.
It has the start to a good post.
There were many of us not quite prepared for the winter weather and even though we heard and watched all the news we still held out hope.
As I looked at my shoes I packed for our trip over to meet up with the kids for Christmas I thought you really did not believe the forcasters about this little snow thingy.
Here I was with silp on clogs and new tennis shoes.
Slip and slide baby- slip and slide.
I might as well have packed a pair of high hells- or high heels depends on what you think of the devil shoes we women like to wear.
The clogs I find are not good snow wear.
And new tennis shoes are slippery.
And mind you I had a pair of boots I left at home.
What was I thinking?
The snow over in Raleigh was a treat and kept us there another night in our high tower, 4th floor hotel room.
It was a great place to watch the traffic crawl by.
A good room, red wine and chocolate are the only way to end a holiday.
But all good things come to an end and the roads were clear enough to travel.
I hope you all had a great Christmas.
We enjoyed spending ours with family and soon that clay will be calling.
We have plans to fire that little kiln again soon.

And you know we are crazy about our kids all 4 of them.
But brother we are a bit crazy over the grand baby.
She is too small to understand this Chritmas thing, but I am sure she will figure it out soon.

Cheers,
M

A Visit from St Nicholas

A Visit from St Nicholas.
by Clement C. Moore.

---

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

‘Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!’

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound,

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.

A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

and I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

and filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

and laying his finger aside of his nose,

and giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

and away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,

‘Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.

 

Report

Okay- right up front I need to give full disclosure.
I did not fire the kiln but here is the short version from the big guy.
The bottom was underfired and what was not under fired was very, very reduced.
The iron black glaze that we top with a wood ash glaze that has rutile in it and is our staple glaze did not like this firing one bit.
Most of the top glaze just burned away.
With that said the iron red and spodumene glaze liked the heavy reduction.
The results were different then in the other kiln but not bad.
So what was learned:
We need to make a change in the bag wall.
The burners are possibly too powerful for the kiln- we are going to step down to a smaller burner.
We are going to use only certain glazes and none of the black and blue until we work out the firing.
all in all- we are happy and knew we would be making seconds.
It takes time to learn a new kiln and this one shows great promise.
Here are some results:

Now we really are ready for some down time.
I would like to thank you all for reading, commenting and your never ending support this past year.
I have meet so many new and interesting people and potters through this blog.
My wish for you all is some family time and some good old peace and love for the holidays.

Merry Christmas to all!
and soon- A Happy New year!
Cheers,
M