What a Relief, Over the FLU!

Well I am finally over the FLU! (fingers crossed)

I believe someone "gave" it to me on the flight to Tucson, AZ (to check out To Bead True Blue and the Gem, Fossil and Mineral Show) on Feb 5th - and I started getting sick on Thursday the 7th, by the time my flight arrived home on Friday morning.. I was a mess. I was in bed for a good 5 days before I could even think about moving about. Then it was more or less wake up, watch TV (I never, ever watch TV) go back to sleep, maybe shower (ick) maybe change my ugly PJ's.. and I cannot honestly say I was really feeling better until this weekend. Saturday I decided it was time for me to Raku something, even though I had a little cough, Sunday more cough and more firing...today, Monday I fired a few loads in between thunderstorms., but feeling much better! I have more to fire on Tuesday.. and I am really loving what has been coming out! Some of these pieces I am just not going to part with., not even for Bead Dreams.

Here are some photo's of the firing and I will blog about Tucson a little later on in the week!

Now this first photo is of me., gotta love the HAT! Sometimes the way I look when I fire all that is missing is a brown paper bag with some liquor in it. I am wearing Disney PJ bottoms and slippers..Thank Goodness I clean up good! Can you imagine, Raku firing, 1900 degree's, with Pj's and slippers with a sweatshirt? I don't know what's more dangerous the firing or the fashion faux pas. Needless to say my husband helped me with one load and his work out pants melted to his thighs (he is fine) -- I am really pushing my luck!

Okay next is a photo of my squelching water.. Notice the large piece of ice in it. Yes, that is how cold it is., I had to stick my fingers in that because I was too cold/lazy to run inside and fill it with more Hot water.

I stuck my camera over the top of the kiln. Almost burned it.

My husband had these welding gloves since he was 18 years old., so roughly 26 years. I ruined them in about 1 year. I do have new ones, but these were the best...he is so mad. :)

I usually do a sawdust/newspaper mixture but my sawdust is wet..not sure why because it is covered., maybe it froze and then thawed or something? So I am using plain newspaper, which is fine but I prefer it the other way.

It is so pretty to fire at night, but in the next photo.. you can see the crack in the fiber shell on my Raku Kiln.. so I am losing heat, which means wasting fuel, which means losing money.

A quick snapshot of some of the pieces, still dirty.

Stay Tuned!