Just now getting around to sharing some photos from my soda-firing last weekend. I unloaded Monday night… but then somehow the week got away from me! Here’s a full look at the kiln after taking the front door off. You always tend to hold your breath while unbricking… hoping that everything went well… that everything looks good… and that there’s not too much dark-gray “dolphin skin” over-reduction!!! So I was very pleased when I got the brick door off and saw all of the fun colors & light clay surfaces. Even more fun as I continued to dig into the kiln unloading the whole thing!

The soda kiln has been emptied… with plenty of new pots ready to prep, price & pack for upcoming shows. Overall a beautiful soda-firing. I love all of the brighter colors that grab my attention while unloading! Such a fun treasure hunt!!! Okay, so there were two “casualties” with globs of soda goo & chunks of who-knows-what in them… but enough about that… back to pretty mugs!!! Here’s a fun stack of new mugs… and one beauty that might just need to join my own personal collection???

A couple bricks removed to help with cooling so I can unload the kiln tonight. Can’t see much… but that one little snippet looks pretty good so far.

Another entry for Spoon-Rest Sunday!!! Another Lisa sharing her soda-fired blue spoon rest. I love seeing all of the spoon-rest-luvin’ today!!! Plus, I’m also impressed on how clean everyone’s stoves are?! I mean, I know the spoon rests are dishwasher-safe… but I must admit MY stove isn’t usually this clean! HA!!

Looks like Rhonda has found a sweet spot to hang her new bird feeders… fresh from the soda kiln after the LILLSTREET SODA FIRING WORKSHOP! Fun textures & soda-fired effects… with some twigs & sticks inserted as perches for her feathered friends!

So many people love the gingko… so I’ve got some gingko leaves in one of my stamped & soda-fired bowls! Ceramic gingko leaves you can enjoy forever. Still hanging out the the “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” show… waiting for that special someone to give the gingko bowl some loving!

I posted pictures of these tiles a couple days ago… but from the backside as I was stitching them together with copper wire. The pictures got a good amount of lovin’ as the backsides have some great soda flashing marks! But I’m hoping that people like the front side as much or more! I love how the textured tiles came together kinda like a cathedral window quilt. This one-of-a-kind wall piece will also be at “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS”… and there’s just one… so it might go fast?!

So here’s a quick peek at another wall installation I made for our “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” gallery show. Each piece is handmade, stamped, glaze-inlaid & soda-fired. I love how a random “constellation” cluster like this can fill a wall so beautifully! Smaller wall?… fewer pieces!!! Easy-peezy!

Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall.

And here are the same tiles after soda-firing… framed & ready to be hung on the gallery wall. A fun collaboration challenge for each of us… making thematic tiles using our usual medium & techniques. So some are metal, some are glass, and mine are clay! We’ll have sixteen tiles in the collaboration wall installation. We’re pretty excited to see how it’s coming together… and we hope you can come see it in person this weekend in Evanston!

Okay, so a couple weeks back I made four tiles… as part of the “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” collaboration project based on the four seasons.

Truth be told… these were made for the soda kiln… shown here glazed & stained ready to go into the kiln. But with the randomness & occasional “tragic” results of a soda firing, I knew that I had to have a back-up plan… or two. So this was Plan A : soda fired. But to hedge my bets, I also made Plan B : glazed. And just in case… Plan C : plain tiles with some separate parts & pieces I could stack & add-on to the base tiles. Luckily, Plan A seems to have worked out fine. So I’m going with the Plan A ones for the show!!!