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?!

Plenty of bisque piling up waiting to be glazed & wadded. First-up… inlaying a tenmoku glaze into the stamped impressions for high tener contrast after the soda-firing. Here we go… giddy-up!

Loaded a bisque kiln getting ready for next weekend’s soda kiln firing. Lots of mugs. Lots of flower pots. Lots of vases. This kiln filled up a LOT faster than I expected. Looking forward to unloading so I can start glazing & wadding. I’ve got a lot of work to get done before I’m scheduled to load the soda kiln on Friday.

Kiln Layer #1 –

Kiln Layer #2 –

Kiln Layer #3 –

Kiln Layer #3-1/2 –