Day 24: It has been a long night, but of course this is just the beginning. I have sent young Jing home for some sleep, as he was with me stoking the kiln all night. We will need his youthful energy over the next two or three days; it is best for him to replenish it now.
The kiln is beginning to warm up nicely. Hungry dragon that it is, it will eat well over these next few days! We will be feeding it through the firebox and stoke holes for two or more days. For its part, our dragon will gobble the wood and consume it in a burst of flame and noise.
Only when I see that color I have come to know, that fierce yellow-white glowing, will I say to those of us clustered around our dragon, "Enough, our dragon has eaten enough." And we will light more joss sticks and drink cool water and most likely fall asleep where we sit.
But that is yet to come. For now, I must return to my ever-so hungry dragon.
Day 27: The firing seems to have gone well. We now have to wait for the kiln to cool before we can open it and unload the ware. As I have had to explain, yet again, to the young ones, if we don’t let the kiln cool off slowly, the pots will break and the glaze will crack and craze. I keep telling them, "If you are to be a potter, you must have the patience of a potter."
I have sent them to collect the straw we need to pack the pottery when it is ready. I told them to bring more than twice the amount we will really need.
Day 30: We unloaded the kiln today, and not a moment too soon. We are to deliver the diplomatic pottery tomorrow, down in the town at the Old Street where the street tiles we potters of the city made are shaped and placed as if a flood of blue turtles were coming up from the Chang River.
Ai’s large dragon flask came out beautiful. I will point that one out to the emissary especially. May the Emperor be pleased!
