Monday I did a much-needed bisque firing of the kiln. As you can see, I had greenware positively packed in there -- resulting in a nice, full kiln. I even had four shelves instead of my usual three -- thankfully many of the things were short, so I could squeeze the extra shelf in.
Some of what you see will be showing up again in the next couple of weeks; expect to see both owls and ashtrays in the next couple of glaze firings. And that ginormous pile of yarn mugs in the back? That should tell you how behind I am in firing. It will also tell you that I lucked out and after two years of searching, finally found another yarn mug mold on eBay. I don't even want to tell you how much I paid for it (although if I did, you'd think that the $15 I charge for them is a bargain in comparison).
What having two molds means now is that I can move a little faster on my custom orders. Long-time HaldeCraft followers will know that I've been sold out through the end of December of 2012 since the beginning of January of this year. I may actually get through them all now by October. Maybe September. Don't get too excited, though -- this doesn't mean that I'm opening up custom orders again. I need to get through everyone I have on my list before I start making a second list. And the first mold really is about to give out, which means that in about another dozen or so pourings of it, the quality of the detail won't be worth, in my mind, even making them any more. Then I'll be back to one mold. Sigh. So I don't want to start taking more orders until I am 100% done with what I have on my list now.
Oh, and a new piece is hiding in the pile, on the bottom right. A tiny kitten, playing with a ball of yarn. Might that be the next "yarn mug"...?