Finally loading the bisque kiln… putting in a LOT of mugs on the bottom layers!!! You know they’re my favorite thing to make, so this has been the perfect project to keep me busy for awhile!

I mean, I don’t want the back stack to feel left out… so here’s another quick peek of last night’s soda kiln unloading! Some nice bright colors & fun soda surfaces all the way through my kiln!

Just a few more shots of the front stack of the soda kiln…pretty sweet! Always exciting to unload a kiln… especially when a LOT of these pots will be headed to Hinsdale this weekend for my first art fair of the Summer!!! So exciting to be selling pots in-person again! Finally.

The first layer… the first shelf… the first lidded jar… SO EXCITED!!!

Here’s another quick peek… after I had taken off all of the door bricks! You can see the difference of before & after the soda firing! Some of the colors come from glazes & colored flashing slips, but a LOT of the magic comes from the soda-firing itself. Introducing soda ash & soda bicarbonate into the kiln creates this wonderful atmosphere inside the kiln that makes wonderful surfaces!

And look, you can still see the brick blocked peep on the right side above… and it now cleaned out below!

Perfect timing… as a LOT of these new pots will be making their way to the Hinsdale Fine Arts Fair this weekend!

I just took the first couple layers of the brick door off the kiln… to reveal the start of the treasure hunt!!! Layer by layer more will be revealed… and we’re off to a GREAT start!!!

Always an exciting end to a soda-firing!!! The addition of the soda mixture into the kiln makes it quite volatile with flames shooting out every crevice & gap in the bricks! Gotta love playing with fire… it’s the waiting for it to cool that’s no fun. Always anxious to see the results!!!

So far so good! The firing is going smoothly so far. We’re in body reduction right now… hence the flames peeking out already. By reducing the air to gas ratio, it makes the flames seek out air anywhere it can find it. Including sucking it out of the porous clay to make the pots more solid & vitrified.

So my soda kiln loading took awhile tonight, but went very smoothly…
until I saw THIS!!!

Apparently whoever unloaded from the soda kiln last didn’t get the whole brick out of the right side peep as it was fused in place! Of course I only noticed this after the door was fully bricked up!!! This side peep is one of the ports that your need to insert the soda into the kiln. This brick-blocked-port is a problem!!! It took awhile to chisel it out… now hoping that it didn’t leave any bad debris inside the kiln?!

And there it is… all bricked up for the night. For tomorrow I turn it on for a full day of firing. Always a LONG day… but the payoff is always good in the end. Plus, it’s a great day to do some glazing of class demo pieces & studio cleaning!!! Busy work that I keep putting off… but tomorrow’s the day!