Pit Firing Greenman pieces!
Here in the high desert of New Mexico (about 8,000 ft elevation) it has been dangerously dry! Our national forest access road was closed due to concerns. Now I am not anywhere near the fire that made national, if not international, news recently. But we have had fires here. Finally we have had over a week of rains and everything is growing beautifully! So I decided to start a fire in my bbqer, which is a concrete structure I made, with my kids, that fit a weber bbqer lid. I started the fire (with the hose on and near at hand! BTW I have posted a video of pit firing here on my blog.
After about an hour it was down to mostly coals and then I placed my kiln shelf in with the Greenman pieces on top, and a couple of supports.
Then I placed another shelf piece on top and lots more wood, restarting the fire.
Meanwhile storm clouds were coming in! Glorious! I love our monsoon season and this has been a nice one this year! My view...
So as I sat there watching the fire, and watching hummingbirds come to my feeders, I looked down and noticed a lot of tiny green plants, which is common during monsoons as so many things lie in wait for water! I thought, "hmmm weeds are always so innocent and sweet looking as babies!" Haha. I then realized it was a spot under the dead tree I had hung my flax from last year as it dried. Volunteer flax!!!! Yay!
About this time the storm clouds were overhead and the fire had died down enough for me to put the Weber bbq lid on the whole thing and let it go for many more hours. With the concrete bbqer I made I decided to use an old bicycle rim for the top of the whole thing. I did this because I thought it might fit the Weber lid I had.....it did! I am still amazed at that! Haha. So this Weber bbq lid? It no longer has a handle and it is very dear to me. I think it is likely maybe 40 yrs old? It was a gift to my brother from a girl he was dating. My brother was never truly committed? I believe his heart was broken at an early age. But he was amazingly gregarious and people were drawn to him. He was non judgmental and many women loved him. He passed in his 40s, almost 20 yrs ago, from cancer and I somehow gained possession of this bbq lid that has a metal engraved plaque. Those of us who knew him joke that this woman KNEW it was a gift he wouldn't get rid of. He would always remember her! Haha so yeah it is something that makes me smile every time I use it! (I also have many of his childhood marbles in my flax bed soil!)
The storm came in so I went in the house where one of our dogs, the largest, was trying to hide under things smaller than her because of the storm! I wait 3 hrs to go look and sift through ash to get my greenmen! I will surely steal one for a pendant for me! I sculpted the face, made a mold out of polymer clay I have in my supplies, then used that mold for ceramic clay I have. I then put holes in 2 and made a top loop on a couple more. So here are the finished Greenmen! Excited to see the bags I will design with these!
