This week I got back some pottery I had recently glazed, although the pieces were thrown on the wheel last spring. I learned how to throw and glaze pots a few years back from Joe Vitek at the Cheseapeake Arts Center. Joe, who has become a good friend, is a master potter and marvelous teacher. The pieces were fired in his gas kiln. Joe puts them in the kiln himself, since the air must flow evenly around all the pieces to fire correctly at extremely high temperatures over several days. Firing takes skill, a bit of luck and alchemy. The glazes don’t look like the colors they will become through fire and chemical reactions so the colors seem magical when they are finally taken out of the kiln.