I fired the soda kiln on Saturday… and somehow the rest of the holiday weekend got away from me?!… too much playing outside I think… if that’s even possible? So I’m finally getting around to posting some pictures from my firing. It was a very smooth firing… if anything a little faster than I expected. When the final cones started dropping I was caught a little off-guard… and had a little bit of panic getting my soda mixture all ready. But all went well… and I put in the mixture every 15 minutes or so until it was done! You gotta love when the flames come shooting out like this towards the end of the firing!!!

Looks like Allyn has a morning ritual…
with another morning ritual that enhances the “first” morning ritual?!

Anyone else?

It took awhile, but I finished loading the soda kiln last night. Lots of pots made it in… and quite a few pumpkins!!! Firing today & unloading Monday night… just in time for ART IN THE GARDEN next weekend! Fresh new soda-fired pots coming soon!!!

Sometimes a single flower can be enough.
Big impact from a homegrown dahlia in a handmade ikebana vase.

Beautiful flowers in a square vase… stamped & soda-fired by me!!! The flowers are straight out of Rhonda’s garden… she must have a green thumb, huh?! Thanks for sharing with us Rhonda!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the Glenview Summer Art Fair this weekend. We had perfect weather both days… with some rain overnight which didn’t affect us at all… whew! So much fun seeing so many people enjoying the weekend & appreciating local artisans. A lot of pots found their new forever homes!

My art fair booth flowers survived the weekend as well… so now they get to hang out a few extra days in a nice stamped & soda-fired vase on my back porch! I love a good oval vase as they spread the flowers out a bit more side-to-side… instead of just slamming them into a circular vase opening.

Playing with textures & patterns again… with another batch of “hybrid mugs” fresh out of the soda kiln! I’ve really loved exploring the combination of wheelthrown & handbuilt parts & pieces… and how they come together into one seamless mug… or in this case, several mugs!!! Many of these hybrid mugs will be with me this weekend at the GLENVIEW SUMMER ART FAIR! Come on by to see them & fondle them in person!

Always fun to see some of my new “hybrid mugs” thriving out in the wild… enjoying a picnic on the back porch somewhere out in the woods!!! “Hybrid” being a combination of wheelthrown & handbuilt parts… along with some amazing textures made with my MKM Pottery Tools hand rollers!

Fresh from the soda-kiln… a few more of the new mugs that came out of the kiln last weekend. Loving the colors, textures & random flashing effects. Just in time for the GLENVIEW SUMMER ART FAIR next weekend… and perfect for today’s MUGSHOT MONDAY!

So with soda-firing, you frequently have some “loss” of pots that get some schmutz from the ceiling, flaked kiln wash in some pots, and other “issues” from the volatile atmospheric firing process. But I’ve never seen THIS!!!… the underside of a kiln washed shelf was LITERALLY peeling off from the shelf??? And landing right on the edge of that blue piece. Luckily… that was the only “issue” I found as I was unloading… so I’ll still count this as a WIN!!!