So last night, I stopped by the studio after setting up my Barrington art fair booth.
I knew that my electric kiln full of monsters would still be warm from firing
overnight. And it was still just over 800-degrees. To hot to open… but I just had to!
So I cracked it open about a 1/4-inch with a thin shard. And went home for a quick sleep!

Then this morning, I stopped in on my was out to Barrington for the start of the fair.
When I got in, the kiln was still about 200-degrees hot. Warmer than I would like…
but I didn’t really ave any choice. I had to take them out. I had to take them to the fair.
So there I was, with a thick pair of gloves, carefully unloading another hot kiln!!!
Luckily, they all turned out great… so I pulled out, tried to cool them quickly so I could
pack them out without the foam sheets melting!!! Then it was off to the fair…
with a new collection of festive monsters in tow!

And the newest member in the tribe…

Okay, so it was another long night in the studio.
Frantically painting underglaze… and then spraying a layer of low-fire clear
glaze on them all. Glazing the insides… and bottoms… touch-ups… clean-ups…
Finally getting them all into the kiln around 11:30pm last night. A day late…

So right now… I’m exhausted but pleased that all my monsters are safely
packed away in the kiln firing. Although it’s going to be tight…
counting the hours until they will be fired, cooled and ready to unpack!
And there just aren’t enough hours between now and then…

After a full weekend of loading, firing & cooling… it is always so much fun
to unload the kiln. Lots of pots. Lots of mugs. Lots of bowls. Lots of tiles…
plus a few pops of color, with a new blue glaze I’ve been toying with!
Especially fun when you take off the first few rows of shelves…
only to find this brilliant new blue jumping back at you! Exciting!!!

And then once you get the rest of the door unbricked, you can see the entire kiln load.
Well, except for all of the treasures that are hidden behind the pots that faced the door!

And with the holidays coming sooner that you think… lots of new ornaments!!!

Next up… adding some wire hanger hoops to the top of each ornament.
Christmas will be here before you know it…

Well, after just a couple hours of sleep and a quick shower…
it was back to the studio with for a full day of firing my soda kiln.
I started the kiln early in the morning and it all went smoothly. With the temperature
raising at the right rate, body reduction where it should be… and the rest of the day
the kiln seemed to “fire itself.” In the afternoon, I measured up my soda mixture of
soda ash, soda bicarbonate, whiting and wood chips! When the kiln gets up to the top
temperatures, it’s time to start inserting the soda mixture into the kiln. So around
cone 9, I started putting it in every 15-20 minutes. All in all, an easy firing.
So now I wait… the kiln is all closed up and cooling slowly. Fingers crossed…

Plus, besides firing my kiln all day, I also got a beautiful firing “souvenir.”
Albeit a temporary & slightly painful souvenir… it was a quick reminder how
hot things can get around the kiln. At one point during the firing, one of the wires
popped out of the pyrometer and I needed to fix it. So I tried to pull the pyrometer out
of the kiln part way with gloves on… and I still got burned!!! Luckily, it was a minor
burn. Imagine how bad it would have been if I didn’t have gloves on!!!

Yuck. And pay no attention to the grimy terra cotta residue in my overly dried-out
& beat-up fingers! They’ve been working hard… and need some TLC. Soon…

Well… it was later than I would have liked it to be.
By the time I finally finished glazing & wadding, it was quite late in the evening.
And I still had HOURS of loading ahead of me! It literally takes me hours & hours!!!
Placing every piece in the kiln, stacking shelves & posts… and putting hundreds
of tiles all over the place. My goal is to utilize every possible space in the kiln.
It pains me to see empty space & blank kiln shelves. So I like to make a wide range
of pieces in all different sizes so it all fits together really well. Tiny pieces fit everywhere!
I want every shelf space covered with something!!! I’m the “King Of Kiln Filler.”

With the back stack full, it’s time to move to the front stack. Easier with less climbing inside!
Two shelves deep that stack up together… or separate shelves is it helps pack tighter!
And room for a LOT more work to go into the kiln. More stacking. more packing. More fun!!!

And once I was done loading, it was time to brick up the door.
Closing the kiln for the night… err, well at this point,
it was early morning. Who are we kidding?!

By now you all should know how much I love a well-packed kiln.
Well, this isn’t one of my better kilns. I’m trying to “speed it along” a bit
and fire things as they’re done to make room in my studio. And a few things
may be just a little damp still. So I knew I could spread a few things and not
stack things quite so tight as normal. But still not too shabby…

Kiln Layer #1 – ovals and a couple mugs… sure I could’a nested ’em… but…

Kiln Layer #2 – and oval, some stacked platters, leaves… and some call ’em empanadas!

Kiln Layer #3 – more ovals and some more mugs

Kiln Layer #4 – a lot more mugs and some bowls… that were drying in Lisa’s studio!

Kiln Layer #5 – now here’s a layer of low-fire fun. The green glaze is low-fire clear!!!

Kiln Layer #6 – and a layer of ornaments, test tiles and a bowl to top it all off!

This afternoon I unloaded another kiln. This time it was a regular cone 10 reduction kiln
that I shared with my studio-neighbor Karen Patinkin. We have a pretty sweet kiln deal –
I load the kiln, she fires the kiln, I unload the kiln… well, for the most part anyway.
So the kiln was fired on Wednesday, cooled all day yesterday and was ready to unload
this afternoon. It’s always fun to open a new kiln. To see how the glazes have developed
and changed the look of each piece. Ideally, the glaze will always make the piece look better.
Yet we all know that doesn’t always happen… so here are a few samples where it did work
as planned! More pieces for the upcoming art fair season!

Mental note to self… remember that this light wood laminate studio shelving is not
the best surface for quick photos of pieces straight out of the kiln. Especially when
those pieces might be glazed in a light ash colored glaze!

For a very long time, on that long list of things to do…
I finally got around to making & firing some textured soda slip test tiles.
I acquired quite a few slips from my potter-friend Emily Murphy when she moved to
Minneapolis. And yet I tend to go back to the old “tried & true.” Maybe because I wasn’t
sure how all of the new slips would “react” in the soda firing atmosphere. So I made test
tiles with one of my favorite handmade rolling pins, painted on some slip and fired them
in the kiln. Of course, I also had to make little “props” to hold them vertical in the kiln.

I’m excited to have new samples of the slips – all with a good amount of flashing
to show the range of colors & effects you can get in the soda kiln.

If you recall, I had a couple little mishaps while I was firing the kiln on Saturday.
The main one was the “electrical hiatus” that shut off the entire kiln in the middle
of the firing – as well as the neighborhood all around Lillstreet. Another one was when
I peeked into the bottom peep and noticed that one of the ornaments was “missing”
from it’s tripod. But wait… there were also five points on my cone pack when there should
have been only two at that temperature?! It took me a few confused moments to figure out
that they weren’t in fact “extra cones” – it was an errant ornament tripod! Apparently…
an ornament decided to jump off the third shelf, land on the second, and leave it’s tripod
on my bottom cone pack!

For those that are wondering… the cone pack looks extra groovy and is now a good
conversation piece. And the jumping ornament survived it’s adventure!

I unloaded my soda kiln on Monday night and took a lot of pictures a long the way.
Too many maybe?! But I’ve gone through and picked out a few representative
samples of the pieces that were in the kiln. Overall, I was quite pleased with the firing!

If you would like to see even more pieces from this soda kiln, click here…
www.facebook.com/firewhenreadypottery