Living Two Lives

It's been pretty busy this past week! I helped Joseph Sand load up his kiln last week, did one shift on Saturday and then went for my 6:00 a.m. shift on Sunday. When I got there, Joseph's comment was that this was "the hottest he had ever had it" which means my position in front of the stoking port was pretty warm! We kept it at about 2430 degrees until we salted around 11:00 a.m. Luckily another potter showed up around 8:00 a.m. with a leather apron and a face shield. This was pretty helpful since I constantly had that feeling of sitting too close to the bonfire (you know, when your jeans feel like they're going to burn into your legs?!). Call me a wimp, but it was nice to have a little more protection.
So here I was, all dressed up for my kiln duty:

THEN I left at 12:00 to rush home, clean up, and do a quick turn around to get to the North Carolina Museums Council conference that afternoon! Here's my freshening up:

Aside from being incredibly tired, I think I pulled off my double life pretty well! The conference was on Sunday and Monday, was well attended, and the lectures and presentations were good. The kiln will be unloaded this coming weekend, so I will keep you posted!