Going with the slow

A new month and the wisdom of Baba Green

May 04, 2024

Is it only me or was April shorter this year? It seems Spring was barely here and already it feels like Summer.

Suddenly, the garden is looking like it needs watering and the green lushness of Spring is already looking tired. Maybe it’s just here, where the change from 10 to 27 ºC high happened overnight. Or maybe it’s just my garden.

Usually, around this time of year, I spend most of the day outside. Clearing the beds, cutting down last year’s seed heads, adding compost, sowing veggies, transplanting seedlings… By now, I usually would have visited the garden centre four or five times, and each time brought home two or three different new flowers. But not this year. This year, my focus has shifted.

Also, we now have a dog…

First, though, I owe you a picture.

In my last post, I mentioned some ancient pictures from my very first time on the wheel. When my mother read the post, she magically produced said pictures. Here they are:

How relaxed do I look?

Back to the dog then.

Is it really the dog’s fault that I am not so focused on the garden this year?

While it is true that he has taken over the outside — running around, barking at the birds, digging holes, trampling over my flowers — it is equally true that my focus is now much more on pottery. Also, some long needed changes in the garden have meant delays in getting the growing season going.

On the practical side, the idea to move the veg patch to a better, sunnier location, was around for a while. Currently, we have four longish no dig beds à la Charles Dowding, no sides, just compost added on top each year, and wood-chip paths. We are surrounded by pine forests, our soil is not sandy, it is sand. Over the years, the soil in the beds has improved but the harvests are not impressive. Plus, the neighbour’s walnut tree is very close, and that spot just doesn’t get enough sun.

The arrival of the dog and the consequent clear and present need to protect any parts of the garden I do not want randomly destroyed, pushed forward the decision to move the veggie patch and surround it with a fence. Hence, all seed-starting operations were postponed until then.

On the emotional side, as Winter slowly gave place to Spring, the LED lamps were still not lit and the seed trays remained unfilled, I came to accept that this year would be different from previous years and that I simply would not make the garden a priority.

And I am ok with that.

As the fence is going slowly up, so I am slowly filling the only raised bed (for now) with some seeds (lettuce, turnip, carrot and onion) as well as flowers (feverfew, peonies, rudbeckia) and perennial veggies and herbs (Welsh onion, wild rocket, salad burnet, mint) moved from the previous location, a few meters away.

There is still a lot of work to do, but for now, I’m happy to take it slow. In gardening, as in other things in life, the wise words of Baba Green are always with me:

“Slow, slow, slow, rain or sun, slow, slow, slow, job gets done.”
-Baba Green, Cloudbabies

So, what’s been going on in the studio?

Quite a lot, I am glad you asked.

As I write, the kiln is on for the second time in as many weeks. A biscuit fire, this time, with all the pieces from the workshops at the local school (the kids made gifts for Mother’s Day), the mugs from the workshop at Spot (lots of new cool art workshops as well as a new date for the next clay workshop already posted — check it out if you are local!) and some of my own pieces I managed to squeeze in.

Also, a few days ago, I opened the kiln after a long and slow glaze firing.

My firing schedules are a work in progress as I learn more about what works and what doesn’t. For example, recently I read that for flat pieces (tile, plates) and large (decorative, sculptural) pieces it is best to have a very slow heating curve from 980 ºC until the top temperature is reached, of about 15 to 20 ºC per hour1. I fire to 1100 ºC, so that’s about 5 hours to climb the last 120 degrees.

And that’s only the last part. Reaching the 980 degree mark takes about as long. Altogether, the kiln was on for 12 hours. And if you think that’s a lot, wait until you find out how long it takes to cool down enough to open…

My kiln is particularly slow to cool down — something that used to cause me immense frustration but that I now know is in fact a very good thing.

After a glaze firing, I must muster all my patience and… do nothing at all for at least 20 hours. This time, I actually waited almost a day and a half, because after 24 hours the temperature inside the kiln was still 88 ºC. And while that is probably on the border of being ok to at least take a peek inside, I have learned that there is nothing to be gained from rushing to open the kiln. Especially in the case of a glaze firing, opening the kiln when it’s still above room temperature is asking for trouble and risking unnecessary surface crackling. Another example of slowly does it (thank you, Baba Green!).

And so, I went to bed.

The next day, at around 6 am, the kiln was at 33 ºC. OK, that is not room temperature, but close enough. YES!

I leave you with some shots of the pieces that came out of the kiln. I’ll be back next week with more news from the studio and possibly (hopefully) some news from the garden also.