May 2026

June 1st crept up on me this year, and I completely forgot to do a May blog. It has been one of the most challenging months of my career so far, so I'm quite pleased to see the back end of May!

This month, I thought I had found the perfect studio for sale by closed auction, so I placed my offer and anxiously waited to hear back. I was fairly confident I would get it, but unfortunately, I was outbid, so it couldn't have been meant to be... Yet. But this felt like a punch in the gut! The search for a studio continues... However, I have a weird feeling that ONE DAY, that is supposed to be my studio. I put my trust in cosmic timing that when the time is right, it will be mine!

The worst part of this month has definitely been my kiln breaking down twice. On a bisque firing, one of my wires burnt out, so I pressured this to be my kiln's only issue and had it fully rewired. Then, I wrongly trusted it to complete a glaze firing (1120 degrees), but the controller showed it did not reach the correct temperature. So I turned it off at what I had presumed was 1070 degrees. However, once the kiln was cool enough to look in, everything had overfired. Meaning a whole month's worth of work had been compromised and was completely unsalvageable.

Now THIS really was a round-house-kick to the guts. Losing a month's worth of work means having to remake a month's worth of work, so I was unable to open my waiting list at all this month. I absolutely hate letting people down, so this was my biggest fear. But, I have been met by such lovely comments and messages of support and understanding, which have really helped boost morale!

The good news is that I now know my thermocouple needed replacing, as well as the full kiln rewire. Because of the overfire, I also had to replace a couple of kiln shelves and fire bricks, too. But my kiln should, technically, work like magic now. Almost everything has been fully replaced or restored. I've test-fired it empty, and it seemed to reach the right temperature at the right time, so I have faith that my next firing won't face the same issues.

So, here's to June! My birthday month. Hopefully, a much better and brighter month for my business, too. I'm looking forward to a fresh start this month and a little weekend away for my birthday! 🎂