Back in the saddle - sort of

I am grateful to have my kiln finally up and running again. It was a mix of emotions every time there was a delay of some sort. 

Now, I need to re-adjust my expectations of glazes at the correct temperature. This glaze on the shamrock pin had a wide range of firing temperatures. When the elements in the kiln were old, it was not reaching the top temperature, but that was OK for things that did not have to be vitreous to hold food and drink (like gnomes and friends...). So, I thought the green on these wouldn't be quite this dark. Don't get me wrong, I love how they look, they just were not the shade of green I was expecting.

Now I need to finish packing and hauling off things to be donated (that we once thought could be in an on-line estate auction) so I can move some of my boxes of things I am keeping out of the corners of rooms and into the closets and cupboards. This is all so I can list the house again. I need to downsize or I will literally go broke. I cannot afford the upkeep of this house. It is also much too much room for me.

Speaking of downsizing, the house I really wanted to buy 2 years ago, when mine was not ready to list, was back on the market. I was getting hopeful as it stayed on the market for several weeks. Unfortunately, it has a contingency offer on it now. 

The right house for me will come on the market when the timing is right.

I hope all are doing well. I'm putting up with the arrival of pollen season here. 

 

This year I decided to make some gnomes with shamrocks on them, but using artistic license, they are round leaflets. I didn't create these as Limited Edition, they are just part of the "Everyday Gnome" collection.

I also was asked to create 4 gnomes with 4-leaf clovers on their hats, one of them is in this photo.

I also have been toying with the idea of creating a shamrock pin in homage to the ones my parents used to get around St. Patrick's Day back in the town I grew up in. (St. Pat is the patron saint of at least ceramic engineers - not sure about the other engineers...).

Their glaze firing is tonight and I will add gold trim around the edges tomorrow. I have 8 in the kiln at the moment with one of those being spoken for.