Removing the front door of the kiln is always exciting… as it reveals the fired work for the first time layer-by-layer, brick-by-brick. Fingers crossed that everything turned out well. Excited to see that there are some good colors, good clay surfaces & not too much of that “blasted dolphin-skin grayness” that happens in a lot of soda kilns! Looking good so far… and usually gets even better as you dig in further while unloading!

After a full day of cooling, it was finally time to crack open the top of the kiln to cool it completely to unload later that night… and to get a first sneak peek into the kiln!!!

After a LONG day of firing… when the last cone finally falls over, the kiln is at its top temperature right around 2,350-degrees!!! It’s been a very loud day with the flames, burners, air, fans, etc.!!! So when the kiln is finally done, it’s a weird feeling to turn the kiln off & have sudden silence! Hope it all went well & that everything looks good inside?! Just a silent glowing box of bricks as you leave for the night… with fingers crossed.

By the end of the firing, when the kiln is almost to its top temperatures, the last of the pyrometric cones are dropping fast. I start to insert the soda-mixture when cone 8 goes down & cone 9 is soft. When the mixture of soda ash & soda bicarbonate is added into the kiln, the flames go WILD as the mixture burns & the moisture evaporates instantly! Causing crazy-cool flames to come shooting out EVERYWHERE!!! Not for the weak of heart… or those afraid of flames.

I think most potters are pyromaniacs somewhere down deep! HA!!!

After a couple hours of the kiln firing & warming everything up, the temperature starts to build rapidly. At a certain point in the firing, you put the kiln into body reduction. Forcing the balance of the “air-to-gas” ratio out of whack. Not enough air for a stable flame. So the flames seek out extra oxygen wherever it can find it. Pulling the air from the porous pots… and reaching out through any cracks in the bricked-up kiln door! Very exciting!

After a couple hours of “Pottery-Tetris” last Friday night… the back stack was loaded, and then the front two-thirds loaded. It filled up pretty quick & might be a little tighter than I would like it to be?! But confident that I’ll be able to “push” the soda deep into the kiln during the firing. All stacked & ready to brick-up the door! And then home for the night…

So last Friday night, I rolled my studio cart down to the kiln room… via the jenky freight elevator… yikes! Everything arrived safely and I was all glazed & wadded… ready to start loading the soda kiln. The challenge is always to “squeeze in” as many pots a possible… while still leaving enough open spaces for proper air-flow through the kiln so the soda atmosphere can make its way though to hit all of the pieces! Here we go…. giddy-up!

After hundreds of firings, the soda kiln at Lillstreet is showing some wear & tear… and will be replaced at some point. But until then, I do LOVE all of the crusty colors & patinas that have taken over the bricks. Such great textures to appreciate… purely from the build-up from the soda-firing atmospheric firings! Very cool.

Last Friday I was “greeted” with this… and empty kiln full of possibility! And yes, another soda firing weekend for me! I’ve been a little busy lately, so I apologize for the delay… but we can re-create my soda firing weekend now… a few days later!

Well, it looks like the collaboration project is finally “collaborating” together! Yep… this year it’s terra cotta flowerpots for the WIN!!! I made all of the flowerpots & water saucers with my stamping, and now Cory is adding her own special sort of handbuilt whimsy! Love her creativity… even more when you see them come together in COLOR!!! More photos to come… as the “Big Reveal” will happen at ART IN THE GARDEN this weekend in Glenview!