Celebrating NATIONAL ORCHID DAY with this beautiful orchid re-blooming again down near Peoria. I think this might be the healthiest & happiest orchid ever… must be the handmade flower pot. Thanks for sharing this stunner Rosene!

It’s always nice when you check the pyrometer at the end of your firing… and realize that you’re just 14-degrees different from top to bottom of the kiln! Pretty darn close… I mean, single digits would have been nice, but I won’t get greedy here!!!

And there it is… cone 10 is down, soda is in, the kiln soaked for awhile… and I called it done! Always a moment when you turn a kiln off and it’s suddenly so quiet… and you just hope that you did everything you could to make a successful firing!!! Fingers crossed for unloading Monday night.

Just putting the last of my soda mixture into the kiln… and the fire frenzy is happening!!! Hopefully those soda-rich-fumes are traveling all around inside leaving some sweet soda surfaces on my pots!!! It cools tomorrow… and I don’t get to peek until I unload Monday night!!! Oh, the anticipation!!!

We have ignition… giddy-up!!!

My soda-firing has been going pretty smoothly today. Still a long day, but I got a LOT of projects done around my studio too! Getting my soda mixture ready… as it’s about time to start adding the soda into the kiln atmosphere. That’s when the real flaming drama really begins!!!

I’ve had some good “body reduction” going on earlier. It’s where the air-to-gas ratio is out of whack on purpose. Forcing the flames to “find” the air wherever it can. So it’s finding the air in the porous bisque, vitrifying it & sneaking out the peeps trying to make a stable flame!

On a separate note… I have no idea if B6 means anything?!

Bricked up late last night & ready to go this morning! It’s going to be a LONG day… but hopefully I’ll get a lot of cleaning & busy-work done while I’m firing today!

Finally finished stacking the kiln! Shelf by shelf. Post by post. Pot by pot. Tried to make some good choices as to which pot goes where for the best soda effects… in terms of air flow during the firing, as well as factors like clay type, glazed or not glazed, colored slips, etc. Hoping that the right pots in the right places will work out for the best in this firing tomorrow!!!

An empty kiln… always filled with so much potential. Loving the soda-fired patina on the bricks from repetitive firings. Glazing the kiln just as it will “glaze my pots” tomorrow when I fire them in this kiln!