Always a good sign… four simple letters… and one step closer to next weekend’s soda kiln firing! Hopefully everything survived the bisque firing and I’ll soon have a LOT of glazing & wadding to do!

Well, we’re one arch closer to getting the Lillstreet soda kiln back up & running. Still need a few more bricks to fill in some of those holes!!! Doug Jeppesen & Neil Estrick have been working hard to get it done for us! Can’t wait to get it firing again! It’s getting there… brick by brick!!!

Looks like the new Lillstreet soda kiln is coming along quite nicely… brick by brick. Thanks to Doug Jeppesen & Neil Estrick for working on our kiln for us!

So then THIS is happening!

The soda kiln where I fire my work at Lillstreet Art Center is currently being demolished and rebuilt. It’s been about three years since it was last rebuilt… with practically weekly firings with a lot of soda mixture to slowly work its way into the kiln bricks eroding the surface & allowing some bricks to move a bit more than one would like! Looking forward to using the new kiln for my next soda firing!!!

One of the coolest part of soda-firing is the randomness that happens during the firing. So anyone who is soda-firing needs to be aware of this before they expect “matched perfection”… ‘cuz that’s not gonna happen!

Here’s a great example…
As each of these mugs have the exact same glaze on the interior. All from the same bucket of glaze!!!

But notice the color variation that happened during the firing… based on shelf location, firing, atmosphere, reduction, oxidation & tons of possibilities!!! A wide range of unexpected colors…. all from one bucket of glaze!!!

…and DONE!!!

Always good to see those four letters!!!

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!!!