After a rickety ride downstairs in the freight elevator, my studio cart made it to the kiln room. With a few masking tape “seat belts” none of my pots were bounced off the cart.

So then it’s time to start loading the soda kiln. But first, a look inside…
And the beautiful, drippy layers of residual soda build-up glazing the kiln bricks.
After many classroom firings, the back wall of the kiln is GORGEOUS!!!

Pretty, huh???
Okay, back to me. And my soda kiln loading.
First, the back stack, a single shelf deep…

And now the front stack, two shelves together…

Then it’s closed up brick by brick by brick… and I turn the burners on for about 20 minutes Long enough for me to clean up my mess, take the cart back upstairs, grab my things and get ready to go. A little “candle” heat into the kiln to dry things out overnight.

After the quick warm-up, my kiln is all loaded, turned off and closed up for the night.
Tomorrow we start again with an early morning…