Patience.

My kiln has definitely been testing me. As I am sitting at my parents’ house in the Netherlands, unwrapping the mugs I brought for the whole family I realize that I bought the kiln almost a year ago and it has taken me almost a year to figure it out. Many ruined pots and frustrations but now I am at a point where I understand that the firing process was just going too fast, even if I was going very slow.

When we purchased a brand new kiln this year with our guild, I figured we would be loading, firing and unloading perfect glaze firings from the start. None of that is true. The new kiln needs lots of test firings as well, also fires too fast, even if we fire with the directions from the book that came with it.

As I am having coffee with my brother I realize that he should be on Cortes, figuring things out. He likes that kind of stuff. He wants to fix it and wants to know why things aren’t working the way they should. I don’t have that in me. I just want things to work the way they are suppose to work and otherwise get it fixed. I don’t have the curiosity, or the patience. I just want to throw pots, carve, be in my own space, fire the kiln and sell my pieces to people who love to hold and use them.