Tonight I started glazing a new bunch of jars and bottles. I can’t say that any one part of the pottery process is more fun than another. It just takes a long time to get to the glazing, and then that final firing when the truth is revealed. The big payoff or heartbreak comes when the kiln cools and I see who they turned out to be. I learn something new with each round. I’m doing something similar to last time, but maybe more simplified. And this time I don’t have all those expectations about exactly what they will look like. I try to predict what the glaze will do, of course. I have to have a reason for applying it the way I do. But then I must leave it in the hands of fate.  

I wish I could forget what I did and why, so the results will just be what they are.  I also want to remember exactly what I did, so I can replicate those wonderful surprises that appear around or in spite of what I have contrived.