And now for the ever-popular… but never acknowledged “ugly” side of soda-firing. All of the parts that most people don’t ever realize happen behind-the-scenes… scraping kiln shelves, sweeping & mopping, stacking kiln furniture and my least favorite task… adding a new layer of kiln wash on all of the shelves I used in my firing. Luckily, I get to look at all the pretty pots after all of this drudge work!

The soda kiln has been emptied… with plenty of new pots ready to prep, price & pack for upcoming shows. Overall a beautiful soda-firing. I love all of the brighter colors that grab my attention while unloading! Such a fun treasure hunt!!! Okay, so there were two “casualties” with globs of soda goo & chunks of who-knows-what in them… but enough about that… back to pretty mugs!!! Here’s a fun stack of new mugs… and one beauty that might just need to join my own personal collection???

A couple bricks removed to help with cooling so I can unload the kiln tonight. Can’t see much… but that one little snippet looks pretty good so far.

Always exciting towards the end of a soda firing. The kiln is in reduction, and the soda mixture has been inserted … so it’s flying around inside wherever the flames go. Leaving some soda-glaze magic along the way. Can’t wait to see what this FIRE did to my pots. Fingers crossed.

Glowing orange… the kiln continues to heat up even as it is placed in “body reduction”. Still a few hours to go… but always fun to play with fire!!!

Bricked up & closed for the night. It was a “quick sleep” and now I’m already back at the studio firing!!! Bricks in, peeps in & ignition started!!! An early start to a long day for firing… plus random studio “spring cleaning” projects throughout the day!

All loaded last night… a LOT of pots fit in this time! Feeling pretty good as I got everything loaded…. except for about five mugs that didn’t quite fit! Can’t wait to see how these pots “magically” transform during the soda-firing!

Lots of pots last night on my studio rolling cart… all glazed & wadded. Ready to start loading… looks like it might be a late night?! GIDDY-UP!

Last night… after a FULL day of glazing & wadding… I finally got around to loading the soda kiln. It’s a little daunting when you come down and see this empty box of bricks staring down at you! Knowing that you need to carefully stack pots & shelves & bricks… trying to maximize your spacing, squeeze as many pieces as you can into the kiln, while trying to keep some good air spacing throughout for good flow of the soda atmosphere during the firing. Kinda like “Pottery Tetris’!!!

Definitely feeling the Spring vibes here with some colored slip accents on my bisqued mugs. Getting ready start glazing these… inlaid glaze in the stamps & a tenmoku liner glaze. Then it’s off to the soda kiln this weekend where these colored slips will react & flash with the soda atmosphere during firing. The colors should become darker, richer & more saturated… if all goes as planned?!