They grow up so fast...

So, it's no secret that lately I've felt somewhat unmoored. Probably because I don't have anything I have to do most days. It's been a difficult adjustment. But, yesterday I was thinking, I actually do have things I need to do, I just... well, A) nobody is going to notice if I don't do them, and B) I find it easier to waste time.

But I'd probably feel a little better at the end of each day, huh? So I set myself a list for today, the main part of which was getting over to St. Pete Clay to finish glazing. I did some glazing on Saturday morning while Smittygirl was getting her hair done, but didn't quite have enough time to finish up. And... I finally glazed the martini shaker. More after the jump.

You may recall I've talked about the shaker in the past. I love it dearly. I made it... gee, I think I made it last February or so, so I've had it for almost two years, a year and a half certainly. I don't have any better pictures of it than these, unfortunately; I should have brought my camera along today to get a final shot. In these pictures it hasn't even been bisqued yet, and I haven't made the cap for it. The cap is not a traditional cocktail shaker cap, which is bowl shaped and covers the shaker. This is just a nugget of clay that rests in the shaker mouth (where the holes are). I did make a traditional cap, but it wrecked the beautiful clean lines of the shaker and lid and I didn't like it.

I left it for Smittygirl to bisque fire while I was in Djibouti last year. It survived that, but since I got home (almost ten months ago now) it's just been sitting on the shelf, unglazed. I've been afraid. I don't want to wreck it. But like so many things, as nice as it is now, if I don't finish it, it will never be worth anything. It's pink as it is and I can't deal with that any longer. I'd been thinking about salt firing it, but you never know when the salt kiln is going to be fired and I didn't feel like waiting. So I bit the bullet and glazed it.

If all works out right it should look like this. I love this black glaze; it isn't actually black, though, it's a glossy brown-black glaze called temmoku. As Wikipedia notes, this is a glaze known for being variable. It could be brownish red. It could be black. It could be streaky, or it could look like an oil spill. I'm hoping for exactly what you see on the vase above, but I don't know who fired the kiln that vase came out of or what they did, and I can't guess at how the fellow who's going to fire the kiln this will go in (perhaps as early as next week) is going to handle it.

Ah, me. I feel like I've just watched a grown child leave home. I've done what I can, and now all I can do is hope I've given it the tools it needs to become a decent person, but it's not in my hands any longer. Martini shaker, a decent martini shaker.