Firing the Anagama

November 11, 2010
Gustin Studios
South Dartmouth, Ma
Windy, Sunny, Freezing Butt & Broiled Breast

The morning dawned very early, I was on the road by 3:30 AM. The cat barely stirred before I left. I was exiting the highway at 6:50, just time enough to hit the grocery store prior to the start of my shift. Today’s shift was heavy-handed, and the beginning had this feeling of being sluggish. I had to hold back my feelings as I knew that that regardless of how much lag time there seemed to be now, there would be a ton of work to do later.

I was correct in assuming that as 10 AM rolled around I was in deep, first manning the pyrometer, then stoking. I think I muscled my way in to the positions out of the need to stay warm. Its friggen cold out here. This continued until about 2PM when Steve arrived with the charcoal and shoots. I was ready for a break. So I pulled out my computer and wrote a bit. Then I got cold, really cold, unbelievably cold. The wind was whipping off Buzzards Bay and quite frankly it felt as if it was taking the whole thing with it. What to do? Well, there was a cord of wood delivered that needed stacking so I started to stack it, then Peter joined me. We had the wood stacked in less than an hour. Just in time to change shifts.

Its 4:45 PM right now and I am headed to New Bedford for AHA tonight with Tom and Linda. I am so excited to see Dan’s show, as well as the rest of the local art scene. More about that and pics later.