Earlier on Friday night, this is what the soda kiln looked like. Empty, yet filled with possibilities. I got a late start loading… knowing it was going to be a LONG night!

Backing it up just a little… someone asked what “wadding” is when they say all of the mugs I was glazing and said that I still “needed to add the wadding.” So here’s a quick shot of the bottom of the mugs… similar to every piece put in a soda kiln. The little balls of “wadding” are made of a special clay mixture with alumina hydrate mixed in which makes the clay resistant to the soda atmosphere. The goal is to keep the pots elevated off the kiln shelves so they don’t fuse during the firing while the soda atmosphere in the kiln is “glazing” all of the pots. After firing, these little balls of clay will fall right off.

The Fall coolness may be in the air today, but that doesn’t mean that the flowers are done showing off. Like these beautiful green hydrangeas that look perfect in a stamped & soda-fired vase!

Out of the soda kiln & headed to The Garden! Some of these precious pumpkins will be coming to ART IN THE GARDEN this weekend to jump-start the Fall season… and more will be headed to ART IN THE BARN in two weeks!! Plenty of pumpkins for both shows!!!

Fresh out of the soda kiln, these little cuties will be coming to ART IN THE GARDEN and ART IN THE BARN. Not really an “official” addition to The Ghouls Collection… but they would definitely fit right in! A new soda-fired version of my terra cotta classic pumpkins!

After unloading my soda kiln, I just needed to take a moment to enjoy a few of my new favorite mugs! Fun colors, fun shapes… always stamped!

Two-thirds of the way through unloading… you get a second “reveal” when you take out the front two layers of shelves… and it reveals the third stack in the back. Again, excited that pots look well coated with soda, with some nice bright colors… and still no blasted grayness!!! Lots of fun new pots to share at my next couple art fairs!

When the kiln door is finally unbricked, it’s always nice to take a step back, take a deep breath & admire the work for a second. Appreciating that the firing was a success… that I got some good colors throughout the kiln, and NOT a ton of blasted grayness! Enough admiring… now it’s time to start unloading layer by layer, shelf by shelf, pot by pot…

One of my favorite “unbricking moments” was when I go the door about halfway down… and found a full pumpkin patch sitting right there… ripe for the harvesting! Pretty excited about how they turned out. Can’t wait to bring some to ART IN THE GARDEN this weekend… as well as some to ART IN THE BARN at the end of the month!

It took a couple hours Friday night, but I finally got my pots stacked in the soda kiln. I tried my best and fit “almost” everything in… just a few stragglers that didn’t quite fit in the end. Guess they’ll just have to wait until my next firing in October?!