The greenware has been waiting, and finally, there’s enough to fire. This weekend, if all goes well, I plan to fire a load. This firing will include a dozen mugs, several plates and bowls, a couple bacon nukers, and some fun stuff.

Once the studio is filled with bisqueware, it will be time to glaze. Earlier this week, I finally whipped up a couple glazes from scratch. These will be the first test batches for an eggshell white and a new deep blue. It will be interesting to see how they work out. It was a lot of fun finally getting to measure out and mix up a couple recipes. Results will be the subject of future posts.

As an aside, I finally saw a project that piqued my interest in slip casting. Here’s the link. It’s an evaporative water-cooling privacy partition tile array. (via Makezine)

Finally, in a tie-in with my beer-making interests, I’ve ordered hop rhizomes to plant at the studio. Hops grow as a vine and can reach 20′ tall. They can also be trained horizontally, so I’m told. Since the side of the studio is in full sun, and could stand a bit of shade, I’m planting the hops along the south side of the studio. If it works out, we’ll have hops for brewing and to give away, as well as a fun shade-producing screen to make the studio more comfortable. The rhizomes are of the Cascades and Fuggles varieties, which should work reasonably well in our area.

And that’s all the news for now.