After much discussion, I finally decided it was time to teach a Three-Day Soda-Firing Workshop. Many of my Tuessday night Advanced Beginners were looking for a little soda-firing experience. So we’re kicking off the Three-Day Workshop.
Day One – Friday : Glazing, wadding & loading.
Day Two – Saturday : Firing & potlucking
Day Three – Monday : Unloading, kiln cleaning & admiring of pots!!!
We started the evening with a discussion about glazing & wadding for the soda kiln. They had all come with a collection of bisqued pots… so they set about to glazing & wading. With LOTS of reminders to take good notes and keep track of what they’re doing so we can discuss the results after the firing.
Once everything was glazed & wadded, we moved pots into the kiln room. More discussions about the soda-firing process, air-flow patterns, reduction/oxidation… and other kiln loading basics like how to stack with shelves & posts.
Back stack done… time to move onto the front stack of two shelves. Lots of discussions amongst the workshop participants. Trying to determine which pots should go where, and figuring out how to get everyone’s pots into the kiln evenly and fairly.
After many-repeated conversations about soda-firing & kiln loading, the workshop participants finally got the kiln loaded. I think they all have a new realization & appreciation for all the work our Monitors do with loading & firing all of the classroom kilns. For the first time, they had to load kilns themselves… instead of their work just “magically” getting fired. I think it was a LOT more work than they expected… but hopefully they’ll appreciate the process more when they get their finished pieces out of the kiln Monday night.
Excited to have the kiln loaded… and now on to bricking the door.
One-by-one… brick-by-brick…
So now it’s all closed up. Ready to go.
Firing begins early tomorrow morning to kick-off Day Two of the Soda-Firing Workshop.
