THE BIG REVEAL.
A quick peek into the top as we started to unbrick reveals a well-melted cone pack.
Cone 10 just a bit flatter than I would normally go for, but it took our class a bit longer to get all of the soda mixture into the kiln. Oh well… still a beautiful kiln full.
After the door bricks were removed, the Soda Workshop Team started unloading their kiln. Piece by piece. Shelf by shelf. Post by post. Trying my best to limit the ooh-ing & aahhh-ing until later. I thought it would be best if we got all of the pots unloaded into one of the classrooms… and then clean the kiln, scrape the shelves and kiln wash before we start to admire their treasures! I was afraid that if we started the admiration process, I may never get them back into the kiln room to do the “ugly” part of the process.
A quick shot of the back stack before it was unloaded.
One casualty… it was a large, flat oval casserole. It was liner glazed with Reitz Green and nothing outside. Rachel wasn’t too upset as it is all part of the learning curve. But she also couldn’t help herself with camera is at the ready!
It was such a “perfect” crack that we think it might have been a bad glaze fit. With the inside lined with glaze, and nothing on the outside, the shrinkage differential may have been too much for the low, flat oval casserole. The cracks were right through the walls of the pot… nowhere near the construction points as you might expect.
As their soda-fired pots began to pile up, it was tough to stop the admiration! So many beautiful pots. So many new things to learn. So many excited Soda Workshop peeps!!!
All too soon, it was back to the “ugly” part of the process. They scraped the shelves down and then re-painted them with kiln wash. My very least favorite part of the entire process. I would much rather scrape than kiln wash!!!
So many shelves that they had to expand into the larger kiln room to spread the shelves out.
It was a long thee days. Yet never enough time to bequeath all of the soda-firing information. So much to share, so little time. I’m pretty sure the Soda-Firing Workshop students had a great time. Their pots turned out great… and now they have been bitten by the “soda” bug. Let the addiction begin…