holy moly what a weekend..

for my kiln to break down!!! yikes!I spend the week throwing and Friday glazing up all this stuff:



and loading the kiln for this weeks firing....now, a little back story here: my kiln, let's just call her 'Pamela', she was a used manual Skutt 1227 9 cubic foot kiln that I purchased in 2003. She has been my steady workhorse thru thick and thin, she was my graduation gift to myself when i started to do pottery as a serious career. I had no money back then, I borrowed money from one of my local shops (against the next year's ware purchases) and wheeled and dealed to get ahold of her, and she's been with me ever since. We have moved studios 5 times since then, and spent many late nights together...because she was manual, I had to turn her up by hand and watch the cones bend and shut her down when she was done firing...In the last few years she's had her elements replaced, switches, and the lid was beginning to crumble along with many of her bricks. I knew it was getting to be time. I was hoping she would make it thru the holiday crunch. Well, I was wrong. A switch failed mid firing and I woke at 6 am Saturday to find she was not anywhere near the temp she should have been at...I went thru the varying modes of panic, as you can well imagine....lots of swearing and a few amped up freaky moments of thinking the worst (that I'd have no source of income for a while-) and then I found myself in a very calm accepting space. Yes, you read correctly: I calmed down, and started getting on a solution. I had known for a while I'd need a new kiln, so I knew what I wanted. (spending the $$ was the hard part...) I priced them out in a few different places and then put in a call to my supplier in Phoenix, just after they opened at 10am. I just happened to have my courier picking up supplies that day, but assumed we'd have to rent a truck to get a kiln anyway...we hammered out a deal (yay--I love wheeling and dealing) and I started to plan for the drive down in a borrowed truck. They called me soon after and said, " your courier is here and we're going to try to get the kiln into his van, so you don't have to drive down." Cha-Ching!! woo hoo--delivery service too!!

By this time B was in high gear--he cleared his Saturday appointments to help me out, borrowed a truck, (which we didn't end up needing) mobilized some guys to help,
and by sundown, I had a new kiln sitting in my studio!!!!! wheeeeehaaaaaaaa!! I love that man--it wouldn't have happened without him. I'm a lucky girl, and I know it.

We had to wait to move the old kiln because she was still hot, so we got the new baby in place Sunday afternoonand I ran a test fire Sunday night. She seems to be functioning properly and last night (in our first winter storm, 50mph wind gusts nonetheless) I refired my wares from last week.
Talk about rolling with the punches--in the past this would have taken me at least 2 weeks of stress and delays, and wringing my hands over trying to save the old kiln, somehow I used to get myself more tied up in knots about things...and this time I was all "look, universe, I'm moving forward, so lets keep rolling!" Now the real test is when I open her up later tonight. I'll have a shot (or two) of tequila on hand for that...