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!!!

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!

When you’re in the final “mad-dash” preparing for this weekend’s soda kiln… you need that last bit of bisque… and you couldn’t quite fit it all in one kiln?!!! Okay, so maybe that “one last bit” was bigger than I expected… did I make to much?! Time to get to glazing… and we’ll find out!!!

Just loading a last-minute bisque kiln…just under the wire… as I will soon have a LOT Of glazing & wadding to do if I”m still planning on loading the soda kiln on Friday night. Maybe I can focus on getting my taxes finished while this kiln fires & cools??? Fingers crossed… ugh.

Layer One –

Layer Two –

Layer Three –

Layer Four –

Last night I helped one of my students load her very FIRST KILN!

Christine has been testing every underglaze & clear glaze in class… and has been wanting to test the commercial celadons in cone six. So she saved some of her stamped work from class, spray-glazed them up with commercial glazes… and soon enough we should have some beautiful pots to show off! Can’t wait to see your results Christine!!!

The four best letters this week! It always feels great to see this code on the kiln… relieving some of the anticipation of an electric kiln firing. Now it just needs to cool down a bit before I can peek inside. Hoping to see some beautiful new glazed Christmas trees in there… just in time for this weekend’s MUD & METAL Holiday Home Show!!!

An empty soda kiln last night…
waiting to be packed with shelves, posts & POTS!!!
So much potential… waiting to be fulfilled…