Nineth Day... on Fire and Smokey Black!

Laurilyn Burson, as most of you know, is a skilled artist and moldmaker. She's one of the most creative people I know.... she can turn her hand to any skill and her results always look professional. Just recently, when I went over to her beautiful lakeside home, she was painting a giant wall-sized painting for her son, in a sort of Arts and Crafts motif. Gorgeous!
Anyway, Laurilyn was Maureen's best friend and for many years they did things together. They both loved nature walks and birds, and spent many happy hours in quiet pursuit of the natural world. They made a lot of artistic collaborations, too, and we are all lucky that they did!
When we held Bring Out Your Chinas Show down here in Carlsbad, one year, we also had a sort of Open House here at Pour Horse (such as it is!) Laurilyn and Maureen came over, and Maureen had sculpted some horse plaques. Laurilyn cast and cleaned them, bisque fired them, and she brought glazes, her little test kiln, her raku supplies, and set up in the patio. The folks who came over were able to glaze a horse plaque and Laurilyn put it through the raku fire, turning the glazes to rainbow colors. Everyone had an immensely good time. I can't remember most of it, but I think that some kind soul glazed a couple for me (I sure don't remember doing it, maybe I did and just blanked it out) Anyway, the prize today is one of the raku plaques, glazed that day.

And the winner is.... Bev Manderfield! Congrats, Bev!

(It's hard to photograph, black on black. You can click on the photo for a larger photo)