Sadly, not quite everything fit into the kiln last night as I loaded into the wee-hours of the morning. As usual, I went through the mental waves of “I don’t have enough… I have way too much… I’m a gonna need to glaze more… this is never gonna fit… what am I doing… I think I need chocolate… still a lot of pots… oh, I think it’s going to be close… can I squeeze just a few more in?”

Well, the answer was NO. So it looks like I have a few leftovers… a nice start on building work for my next soda kiln, right???

And yes, we have ignition already… and the soda kiln is slowly warming up.
It’s gonna be along day… luckily, I have a lot of studio projects & cleaning to tackle
while I’m here all day!

More bisqued pots coming out soon… more pieces to glaze & wad
as my next soda kiln firing is this weekend!!

Here’s another great example of soda-firing… BEFORE & AFTER.

This collection is mostly Kelsey’s handbulit pots. Some classical forms with some contemporary surfaces. It’s cool to see them side-by-side to see & how they all transformed during the firing.

Well done Kelsey!!!

After unloading the kiln, my 3-DAY SODA WORKSHOPpers also got to finish it out with the “glamorous side” of soda-firing. They had the “privilege” of scraping all the shelves, adding a new layer of kiln wash, cleaning the fire boxes, sweeping & mopping the floor! I mean… they want to “experience” soda-firing… and now they’ve done ALL of the steps in the process! They all had a great time… and are already asking if they can do another firing with the same group!!! WELL DONE TEAM!!!

Back to my 3-DAY SODA-FIRING WORKSHOP… and last Wednesday night when the workshoppers got to finally unbrick their first soda kiln! The excitement was palpable as the door came down brick-by-brick. Revealing their work after being transformed by the soda-firing process. So much fun to watch them find their pieces in their very first soda-firing!!!

Last night my 3-DAY SODA-FIRING WORKSHOPpers finally got to unload their very first soda kiln. Always a great treasure hunt… with this being their very first peek into the kiln! So far, so good… more to come…

When the kiln gets up towards the top temperatures, and the cones are dropping… it’s time to insert the soda mixture. Scoop it onto the angle iron, pull a peep brick, insert the angle iron, dump the mixture, pull out the angle iron & put the brick back in. Easy-peezy… as long as you watch out for the flames!!! Then we let the mixture vaporize & fly around inside the kiln leaving soda “glaze” deposits all over the pots inside.

Towards the end of the soda-firing yesterday, it was time for my “workshoppers” to mix up the soda mixture & prep it for putting it into the kiln. I like to insert the mixture by scooping it onto a long angle iron that will then go into the kiln through two peeps that are directly over the fire boxes.

Yesterday was my firing day for the 3-DAY SODA-FIRING WORKSHOP. So much fun firing the kiln when the flames start to peek out during “body reduction.” Basically, when the gas-to-air ratio is a bit out of whack and the flames are searching for more air!