Cat and tapir porcelain spoons

Ceramic spoons stir warm feeling among us. It's because, I think, spoons are symbols of love, healing and nurture. I like to stir my espresso with my cat spoon. It makes me feel happier, a little bit, but happier.

Fresh from the kiln - last Friday's firing

My spoons have glaze all over. So that you could use them for any food without worrying about stains. Although high fired porcelain and stoneware have high resistance against stains, but I know you would feel better if they are glazed all over, because I would. Glazing all over requires a problem solving skill because glaze would be stuck on kiln shelves if they are fired directly on them. I made a firing rack and put the heat resistance steel bar, and hang all spoons on it. The black colour in the holes of  handles were caused by the steel bar. At 1240C even steel became soft a bit. And after several firing the bars deteriorate.  

Cat spoons

The rack is about 20% higher than spoons as porcelain shrinks a lot after firing.  And the steel bars makes a mess in the kiln. As they deteriorate a bit by bit at each firing, steel dusts fly over inside the kiln.  So I usually use an old shelf to fire the spoons on and another shelf to protect other work. As the rack is quite tall, it would be ideal if spoons would be fired with work in similar height. Hence, I don't fire spoons often.  

As glaze ran down a bit at high temperature, some parts of black underglaze become a bit runny with it, as well. 

So that's how spoons were fired. It is quite a challenge. Once or twice, steel bars became bendy and a few spoons got stuck together. Each spoon is small, but it takes a lot of space in volume to be fired. Even so, I like making them. I am not a potter or 'spooner' by trade, but I know people love my spoons. I can't forget when they see the spoons in person, their eyes are shiny and twinkle, and they show their most beautiful inner girls' faces.    

Quite a few from the last firing have gone now. These are remaining ones. 

Remaining spoons from the last Friday's firing.