Before my students could enjoy their newly soda-fired pots… they had to do some kiln maintenance! Always a hassle after a long firing weekend, but a necessity that I made sure my LILLSTREET SODA-FIRING WORKSHOP folks got to “enjoy” as part of experiencing the “full” soda-firing process! Scraping kiln shelves, re-applying kiln wash on both sides of every shelf & cleaning the kiln room. After they put in the manual labor… we finally got to go back to caress, fondle & appreciate their new soda-fired treasures!

Towards the end of the firing yesterday, the soda kiln is creeping into the cone 7-8-9 range… and the kiln is in full reduction at that point. Always exciting to see the flames shooting out everywhere!

Yesterday was the firing of our kiln for the LILLSTREET 3-DAY SODA-FIRING WORKSHOP. I started the kiln early in the morning… waiting for the pyrometric cones to start going down… and sometime around noon it was time to put the kiln into body reduction. Which is always fun because that’s kinda the first time you seem some flames peeking out of the kiln here & there!

A little more fun this week making some cone packs for upcoming firings.

The pyrometric cones are designed to melt at different temperatures. So this little pack of six cones will take us all the way through the soda firing… indicating certain kiln firing modifications along the way. During the firing, you pull out a brick and peek into the kiln to see the cones… watching their melting progress. When the final cone… cone 10… melts over halfway down your kiln is done!! Very high-tech, right???

A pretty little purple platter fresh out of last night’s kiln… before & after. It’s amazing what a little kiln magic can do to some powdered glaze chemicals!!!

A good sign to start the day… my favorite 4-letter word!!!

Glazed, loaded & ready to go! Just need to shut the lid, cross my fingers & turn the kiln on! A big batch of glazed Christmas Trees coming soon for this weekend’s Second Holiday Home Show!!!

Right on schedule…
one last kiln to unload before this weekend’s HOLIDAY HOME SHOW!!!

Solving the mystery of the “missing” cone pack! Remember when I was firing my kiln, a couple hours into it I finally took out the top peep to look at the cone pack… only to find that it was just plain GONE!!! So it turns out that the top cone pack literally exploded at some point. It must have still been damp inside or too thick. My concern was that the shrapnel would end up inside some of my pots!!! Luckily, none of the pots were affected. The cone pack “parts & pieces” ended up on the shelf next to it… and a few pieces fell all the way down to the kiln floor. The unexpected hazards of firing a kiln!

It’s a rainy & windy day… perfect for sharing some more photos from my recent soda firing! Lots of pots ready for my HOLIDAY HOME SHOW in two weeks! So now I just need to prep & price them all… as well as setting up all the shelves & decorating my place! The pottery party is in just two weeks!!!