Bisque fire

 
      Personalized gift of the day.
Once the weather gets cooler, and the studio doors close against the weather, the girls love bisque and glaze fire days. One of the warmest spots to be is next to the kiln, which is where they got set up. We fire the bisque to around 1900 degrees, so their spot gets nice and toasty.

 The bisque fire is the first firing of the cycle which hardens the pottery enough for us to decorate with cobalt, lining and glazing. It turns the pottery a pretty pinkish color which you can kind of see in the dark picture below.

 Once the bisque fire is cool enough to unload the next day, the kiln and building are still pretty warm. At this point, the girls love to nap INSIDE the kiln. Those girls know all the hot spots.

Here is an example of a customer gift message we liked: "Happy 5th Anniversary, May your crock always be at least half full."

Here's another one written by another customer:  "For your wedding, we wanted to share a new tradition with you- we were given one of these for our wedding and love seeing it every day as it sits on our counter holding all of our spoons and spatulas. I hope you love it!"

We do have Three Rivers

Pittsburgh is usually not known for being particularly "boatie", but we do have Three Rivers. The sight of boats heading toward Heinz Field and PNC Park during sports seasons is fun.

 A sign of spring for us is when we see boats heading towards the public boat launch at the South Side Riverfront Park down the street from our studio; and when we start seeing these "boatie" logos appear.

The bridge below is the Birmingham Bridge. It was seen in the movie "Striking Distance"

with Bruce Willis.

Here is a link to more info on Pittsburgh's water life: http://pittsburgh.about.com/od/recreation/a/water_sports.htm