My studio-mate Ellen Nadeau messed up her back during last month's raku-a-rama, so on Saturday the two of us had a mini do-over. She and I (mostly she) cranked up the bigger of our two kilns and loaded it up with some of her sculptural forms.

We fired to about 1940° (cone 04-05ish) instead of the cone 06ish 1830° that Brett goes for, to see if our glazes would melt a bit more smoothly. We also cracked the lid briefly before we were done for a quick boost in oxidization, and loaded our 2nd and 3rd loads while the kiln was still at 1000° (rather than waiting for it to cool down). All in all, the results were much improved. I will post some before and after of my own pieces once I have the pine needles woven onto a couple of them. In the meantime, here are Ellen's