Packing day

Thursday was packing day, both on the homefront and at the school. Robin spent nearly the entire day inside the doubleside wood kiln, carefully accepting the pots being passed through the arched door and scrutinizing over each one and ultimately deciding their fate. 

The loading itself went fairly fast considering the number of large pieces going in. Robin was especially  keen to be on the 'inside' of the loading process because he is particularly interested in manipulating the placement of the pots and considers this another part of the creative process. By placing pots with the intention of directing the flame, he likens it to painting with fire for a desired surface treatment in wood firing.  

The kids and I came by the kiln compound around 4 p.m. to check on how things were going and there were not too many pieces left to go in. We stayed for about half an hour and tried to stay out of the way, but a curious little person couldn't resist sticking her head in the kiln for a better look. We then headed home to finish up our own packing of clothes and toys for our road trip home to Canada. 

Robin was also wanting to play a significant role in the loading since he won't be here for the actual firing. With the strange inverted weather this semester, the kiln schedule got moved around and unfortunately that meant bumping the doublewide firing to this weekend (the start of the USU spring break), also the same weekend that we had made plans to drive back to the Kootenays. 

He's disappointed that he won't be here for this much anticipated firing, and the crew has generously offered to hold off on unloading the kiln until next Sunday when we plan to be back. Our trip home this week will be a short one but we are both looking forward to the drive and time together.