Kiln Door

I've been making pots this week, as we had sub-zero weather, and it was too cold to mortar bricks.

Last Monday, when the air may have risen to the 20's degrees, I cut off the screw tips sticking out from the front of the angle-iron door. It was much easier than I had anticipated, took only 15 minutes. But the screws may have been frozen, and the friction of the spinning grinder may have just shocked the screw tips off. So much for the amateur explanation.

The rest of the week, I was back making pots. It felt so-o-o good. Like riding a bike, my hands didn't forget what to do with clay on the wheel-head. I'm still slow, I think some of my speed is a result of the weather. Just how fast can one move in 15 degrees? Even inside the studio, it seemed to take forever to warm the place up. With the heater blaring, pots were drying out faster than usual for Oregon's usual cool damp winter. More typical is that pots take 3 weeks to completely dry out in the wintertime. Summer is much different, and spring & fall still different. One year I was making pots in Nevada. In that extremely dry air, one could almost put handles on mugs as fast as they were thrown, they dried out so quickly.

I'm closer to on schedule that when the kiln is finished, there will be pots ready to be fired in it. Except that the schedule is 3 months behind.
Hey, the sun is coming out, and it is above freezing. Wonder if it is warm enough to lay some mortar?