Tuckered Out Today

Jars for 20-mile runners cool off in the electric kiln

I threw the last jar for this year's awards for the Uwharrie Mountain Run today, and I was exhausted. Sixteen six-pound jars shouldn't make me feel exhausted, but I think it's all the smaller pieces I've been throwing for the past few weeks, and the stamping, signing, loading, unloading, moving, cutting wood and other tasks associated with making this many pots. Or maybe I'm getting too old for this kind of production.

I'm grateful to have my son helping out. He threw a lot of the smaller pieces, and he also cut up some of the pine slabs. And my wife has been a great help as well, cleaning bottoms, stamping and signing "20th Annual Uwharrie Mountain Run" on the bottom of pots. And she keeps us well fed so we can keep going. Mushroom soup for lunch today.

I'm looking forward to Sunday when we plan to fire all the pieces in the wood kiln. I'm not sure if they'll all fit, but if they don't I still have enough time to fire another kiln load. The race starts the first weekend in February.

I'll be adding lugs on the larger pieces tomorrow and loading more smaller pieces that have dried enough to bisque fire in the electric kiln. I hope the larger pieces will dry quick enough to bisque fire Thursday, so we can load Friday and have a day of rest before we fire Sunday.

I'm liking my new camera. Below, is a film of me throwing one of the large jars. It's shot in high definition, but you may have to change the setting (click on "360") or view "full screen" (click on bottom right icon) to see it in HD.

I really like the Okeewemee 10 clay from StarWORKs Ceramics I've been using for these pieces.