Merry Christmas From Sorrento

I still remember the first time I laid eyes on this place. It was in the summer

and I was almost speechless.

I just had to find a way to live here.

(I later found out I had been here before, at the age of 9 mos.)

This is the tiny coastal village that I call home and am completely taken with.

Feather Your Nest!

During the summer months, we have a converted space in our home where we sell our raku and art. This space serves double duty as 1 bay of our garage where our car resides in the winter.

This winter we are excited to add another venue from which we will attempt to sell our raku pottery. We invite you to visit our Etsy.com store by simply clicking on the Feather link near the top right-hand portion of this blog.

I enjoy working with wool and experimenting with novelty yarns as well.

Alas! A shop that is open 24/7 from which to Feather Your Nest!

Raku = Joy

Here's the little guy that survived the 2000 degree heat in my previous post. He now proudly takes his place on the shelf with the other pieces having pulled through the tremendous thermal shock of the raku firing.



Shortly after we last saw him, hot as a burning ember from a woodstove fire, he was transported via long handled tongs to a trash can that had been sitting in the 30 degree night air. Next, he was sprinkled with sawdust that was quickly ignited by the heat emanating from his modeled clay body. After about 30 seconds, down came the lid on the trash can until shortly after dawn the next day. A perfect hour to reveal the magic of raku. You can never predict the results. But the immense joy you feel as you see what is waiting inside that can for you, is nothing short of how a kid feels opening presents on Christmas morning.

The Art of the Fire

These whimsical fish were sculpted by my husband in an attempt to use up the extra clay that is wasted from working on wheel thrown pieces. Each one of his creations seems to take on it's own unique personality.

They have been bisque fired and glazed, but their true identity awaits and will be revealed in the next post.

Tonight was the night a few of them made it to the fire. This glowing creature is the result of

having spent about 30 minutes in the raku kiln where the temperature rose to 2000 degrees fahrenheit. This moment is part of the excitement of raku, when you lift the top off the kiln and are met with the very heart and soul of your piece. Tomorrow they will look quite different.

Our pots will be fired later, but tonight it was all about the fish.