In terms of sneak peeks… this is all we get!!! With the new full steel door, I can no longer peel off the top couple layers of bricks to speed up the cooling & get better peeks into the kiln. So it’s one peep brick pulled for one peek. Guess we’re all gonna have to wait until the kiln cools enough to fully open the door!

Yesterday I fired the soda kiln… a very long day checking it & making gas/air alterations. The new soda kiln has a solid steel door. So it was a little weird not having the “visual cues” that we used to have with the old “bricked-up” door. Remember the old kiln?… with crazy cool flames shooting out all over the place??? Sure, maybe not so efficient? Maybe not so safe? But it was always fun playing with the flames shooting out everywhere!!! This time, much “calmer” with a bit of a glow… and very few flames even during reduction! It all went smoothly… we’ll find out soon enough how it all turned out.

While my soda kiln was in “body reduction”… I made my soda mixture for later.
Basically soda ash & soda bicarbonate.

In the old kiln, I just scooped the mixture into the kiln on a long angle iron going in through the front peep bricks… dumping into the fire box. But the new kiln has a different fire box & peep “situation “… so we can only add soda through the back peeps with a much shorter angle iron. So I had to roll-up my soda mixture in wet newspaper “burritos“ that I will add into the kiln towards the end of the firing. Dropping them in through the back on that short angle iron. A new kiln & a new technique… we’ll see?!

And we’re just a couple days away from the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR! Make sure you’ve marked your calendar, rallied your pottery buddies & stocked-up on some roadtrip snacks!!! Make a full day of it visiting all six stops with 34 potters along the way! I will once again be at the Sandwich location… Stop #5. C’mon by…

For more information… www.northernilpotterytour.com

A week later, and my art fair booth flowers are still looking pretty good.
I think they might be enjoying life on my back porch
with the cooler nights we’ve been having.

Not every mug has to be used for coffee! Sometimes a hybrid mug looks even better with a splash of brightly colored flowers!!! Perfect for another Mugshot Monday!

It’s another Floral Friday… this time with an oval vase full of orange tulips gracefully cascading to the side. I love how oval vases allow the flowers to spread more side-to-side… and not always so vertical like in normal vases. A little stamping… a little soda-firing… and a little soda flashing on “raw” unglazed B-Clay!!!

Good thing there are “always” more where that come from!
Plenty of mugs for another MUGSHOT MONDAY…
and a LOT happier than Matthew’s broken one!!!

A true harbinger of Spring… a beautiful vase full of orange tulips for another Floral Friday!
Two different varieties of orange tulips to compliment my stamped & soda-fired vase.

Celebrating a little TEXTURE TUESDAY with a stamped & soda-fired ClayQuilt I made awhile back… currently living its best life in a customer’s home!