Favorite Mugs

O my goodness, I love these mugs.  I should have waited for the professional pictures to post, but I just couldn't stand it.  I had to show you.  I took these out of a hot kiln last saturday at 6:00 in the morning.  I couldn't wait! I was supposed to be at my mom's house where we were all going to car pool up to Swiss Days.  Instead, I was picking through a hot kiln shaking with excitement at the new arrivals.  This is why I do this folks . . . it's all about Christmas for me.  I grabbed as many mugs as I could carry, and was off to my mom's house where they were ready to send out a search party.  I've been staring at them for a week now and still love them.  (sidebar) I met the nicest folks from Idaho during Swiss Days.  After perusing the booth for about 15 min the gentleman said to me that he was looking for something he could critique about my work, and said he could find nothing.   Well, this is it!  I can never wait for the kiln to completely cool.  This impatience can cause several problems such as; breakage from heat shock, glaze crackling or crazing within the glaze.  In general a kiln should be left to cool for about twice as long as it was fired or until the pots can be touched and unloaded will bare hands. The best you'll get from me is waiting until paper won't burn in the peeps, which is at 451 degrees. These mugs are a perfect example of my impatience, they were still hot when I arrived at my mom's house to show everyone my prize.  I hope you love them as much as I do.  I'll have professional pictures up soon.