Palely Loitering

Anyone read Keats? I don't,but my mother used to use the expression,and it popped into my mind when I took these celadon pieces out of the kiln, suitable for those of a nervous disposition,maybe,who need a lot of calm. We're just before Shabbat,which will segue into Pesach tomorrow evening,so there is much tidying,burning,cooking,taking out of Pesach dishes and general mayhem. Meanwhile,I finished off some lustred mugs this morning,and am approaching 500 degrees with a small lustre firing in the gas kiln- at 500 I can turn it up and hustle to top temp of 720-750. Next job is to grate the horseradish for the Seder; let's hope it's a strong one this year,to clear the nasal passages of all the dust we've been breathing.
The kiln is behaving strangely these days,requiring much heavier reduction to produce apparently less-reduced effects- apparently,because the celadon glaze might just have been a bit too thin; I've gone back to my first celadon glaze,because the second,though giving a good intense colour,crazed too much for my liking. The 2 glaze firings I've just finished came out well,after a struggle [which is half the fun,of course]- the new batch of French clay looks good,as does the new slip [my old porcelain slip had a tendency to peel in the glaze firing,aggravated since I started adding the more refractory Spanish clay to get a better body colour] and the recently-troublesome cream glaze seems to have settled down and is giving good results [and consistent- a novelty]. a bunch of copper-glazed cups didn't go red [and ran a bit],otherwise everything was fine,and the studio is now washed down,surfaces waxed,display shelves sorted and ready for visitors.
Shabbat Shalom! Happy and Kosher Pesach!