Towards the end of last year, I had become kind of enamored with my new, slightly larger,
textured tiles. Now don’t get me wrong… they’re by no means large. They’re just a smidge
bigger. And I’m still digging ’em… so I had to make more!!!

By the end of the night, I had pretty much covered my entire work table. So I was done.
I put all of my tiles on a plastic grid so they can dry more evenly. It doesn’t always work,
but they seem to dry more evenly, with less warpage, when they have air drying them from
all sides, top & bottom. It’s a little “trick” I learned from friend & tile-maker Mike Skiersch.
It’s a simple “trick” using the plastic grids they put in suspended ceilings to help “hide” the
fluorescent light fixtures. Any hardware store has them… and they’re pretty darn cheap!!!

I got my hands dirty tonight… yeah!!!

I finally made it back into the studio and started working on a “new project”
for the New Year!!! I hoping that something comes of it… we’ll see…

It’s been a busy week setting up for this coming weekend’s Holiday Home Show…
let alone a whirlwind tour of Dallas, Washington DC and Boston (more to come).
But I also took time out today to help my friend Catherine Tweedie fire her soda kiln.
She unloads on Monday… and I can’t wait to see her lovelies!!! While we were firing,
I did manage to make another batch of tiles in a new, slightly larger size!

Here’s a sneak peek into my recent soda kiln. It’s always such  fun surprise to unbrick
the door and see what’s waiting for you inside! So you take out the bricks one-by-one
revealing what’s inside layer by layer. When they’re all gone, the kiln is wide open…
and ready for some quick photos before packing it all up!

As I unloaded the kiln, most of the pieces go straight into crates & boxes so I can get them
home. Along the way this time, I stopped and took a few more photos than normal to share.
Nothing too professional, no graduated gray background… just some quick snapshots in
the empty spray booth with existing lighting! Like I said, nothing too professional…

Plus, something that photos can’t always show… both sides of some pots! Frequently, the
beauty of a pot is in the holding, touching & fondling. Being able to see the pot from all sides.
Noticing all of the details – both inside & out. So here’s one of my new stamped bowls…
both inside with temoku glaze, and outside with more stamping & flashing slip!

And another bowl… this time squared off with a very light layer of temoku glaze inside
along with some flashing slip on the outside.

And I love when you can see the direction of the flame as it passed the pot during the firing.
Where the slip is orange, the flames hit it and deposited some soda. Where the slip band
is still white, the soda couldn’t quite “hit it” as the flames could wrap around the bowl before
moving on & exiting the kiln. So on this bowl, you can see that the flame hit the left side,
and not so much on the right.

Plus, we also have a new Stoneware clay with Ochre in it at Lillstreet. The clay is darker than
regular stoneware and it fires to a dark chocolatey brown. This is the first “ochre” bowl I’ve
ever fired in the soda kiln. It’s a little more dramatic, a little darker… and the flashing slip
band around the foot ring has a great “directional” flash to it. Kinda likin’ it…

Unfortunately, after emptying the kiln, the work continues. It takes quite a while to scrape
and clean all of the kiln shelves, put on a new layer of kiln wash, clean the fire boxes, sweep
& mop the floor… let alone shlepping it all home at the end of the night! A long evening.
But a great reward to have a full kiln’s worth of pots ready for the Holiday Home Show!

So my handmade studio rolling cart made it safely down  to the first floor kiln room.
The masking tape “safety belts” really did the trick again as we traveled down the rickety
freight elevator. Nothing jumped off the cart as we hit every bump along the way.

And then the loading began… an arduous task as I try to pack in everything I can!

The back stack of the kiln always seems to load a lot faster. Not only because it’s only
one shelf deep, but I think it’s also that there’s a lot of work to choose from. Later on,
your searching and hoping for that perfect sized piece to fit that precise spot.

I finally squeezed in pretty much everything I possibly could. It took hours!
It’s a delicate balancing act as you stack shelves and try to leave enough space so that the
soda vapors can travel through – versus packing it tight to get the most work you can into
the kiln to help justify the kiln & gas fees. So as you can see, I err on the side of packing it
tight. And I love have smaller pieces like ornaments & tiles that make the perfect kiln filler.
Very little of the white, kiln-washed shelf even show after I place hundreds of tiles in the kiln!

After housr of packing the kiln, you still need to bulid the dor brick-by-brick.
It’s very “old-school” but still a lot more fun than a new-fangled metal door!
So once I have it closed up, I turn it on low for maybe 15 minutes while I’m gathering my
things from my studio. As I’m ready to leave for the night, I turn off the kiln and close the
dmaper to try and hold in some heat. As I know that it’s just a few short hours until I’ll be
back to start the firing early tomorrow morning!

Last night I got a lot of glazing done. It was another late night, but I got most of the
“smaller” pieces glazed & wadded. Today I need to focus on the larger ones… and then
load the kiln for tomorrow’s soda firing! Looks like it’s going to be another long day…

Last

My bisque kiln from last night was still warmer than I would like.
So I decided to let to cool longer and dive into glazing some pieces from an earlier kiln!
I generally start by painting a lot of temoku glaze into all of the stamped impressions.

And then, once the glaze is dried, I take a moist sponge and wipe off the top surface
so that the temoku glaze stays inside the stamped impression – but not on the surface.
I love how the inlaid glaze really shows off the pattern of the stamp, instead of covering
& obliterating it with too much glaze!

But don’t think that they’re done. Oh no, I’ve got a lot of work to do on them first.
Liner glazes, sprayed accents, wadding, etc. So there’s still a lot to do… and even more
coming out of the bisque kiln tomorrow night. Not a lot of time to get everything done.
It’s my plan to load the soda kiln on Friday evening, and fire all day Saturday!

Tonight was my last chance to make some new pieces for this weekend’s soda kiln.
I have a bisque kiln scheduled for tomorrow… so I’ve got to get these done, slip painted,
dried and ready to go into the kiln quickly. So I decided that some more large textured
slab vases might be a good way to go. And here are some more textures on the slabs…
soon to become textured vases!

Getting ready for my next soda kiln… trying to make more, but quickly running out
of time! So tonight I loaded another bisque kiln for firing. Not really my “best work”
in filling a kiln… but sometimes you just need to get it loaded and get it done.
As the glazing portion needs to begin really soon!!!

Kiln Layer #1 -More bowls, mugs & ornaments!

Kiln Layer #2 -More bowls, mugs, tumblers & ornaments!

Kiln Layer #3 – Plates, gourd leaves, ornaments and some “filler” from Catherine Tweedie!

Kiln Layer #4 – More mugs, tumblers, ornaments & “filler” from Tweedie!!!

So, Friday night I spent some time reclaiming clay and incorporating it with some other,
stiffer clay. Then I threw a few pieces with that “new” clay. Well today I was back in the
studio trying to finish off everything I threw Friday night. First it was stamping & trimming….

Followed by adding some colored slip accents. The slips I used are special for firing
in the soda kiln atmosphere. They may look dull now, but once the soda hits them,
they will turn into saturated colors like orange & gold.