The Dragon Breathes Again!

For those of you who did not know, we spent the last two weeks of March (spring break) in Oregon visiting family and friends. We had such a great time staying at mom and dad's and spending time with Dad, Holly, Pamela, and the girls. Not only did we have a fun time together, we really got a lot done! Dad, Pam, Hamish, and I made a goal last fall, to keep Pollywog Pottery alive as much as possible. Mom worked so hard for her studio and kilns and taught each of us so much. Learning to fire mom's gas kilns was a the top of our list of things to do, but something we'd never done solo before. When we'd help mom with a firing, she would give us instructions based on which cone was down - or - which cone was not going down fast enough. Everything depends on gas, air flow, and flame interaction and each influences the entire atmosphere of the kiln. It took all of us banding together to approach such a daunting task. We spent a good part of a week preparing to fire mom's gas kiln and test her glazes.


We were very careful to load the kiln up with pieces that were not necessarily important - 99% of it being things we made. Mom was able to sculpt a few birds, totem beads, even a dragon last spring along with some dinnerware pieces for Lane and Holly. That is a load that will wait until we feel more confident about firing such treasured items!

I know it's a bit confusing - I'm still learning so much about the firing process - but check this out: we got that baby all the way to a smokin' hot 2,300 degrees (cone 10)! Not only did we do that, we reached temperature in about the same amount of time mom did. Which was important because this particular kiln uses propane gas, which is not exactly cheap these days! This would not have been possible without the help of mom's (and our family's) dear friend Heidi. Thank you Heidi for coming all the way from Glacier, Montana - We Love You! And we had SO MUCH FUN too!