The Vagaries of the Soda Kiln

A long time ago my friend and mentor, Jim, advised me against trusting one of my heavily carved pieces to "the vagaries of the soda kiln". As it worked out, that piece came out fine, but I've since experienced almost equally good and bad results from the behemoth behind MCG. In this most recent firing, I was fortunate enough to pull this gem of a mug (pictured) from the shelves, unscathed and perfectly toasted. Some of the other pieces were downright beautiful, but some came out questionable. Whether it was just such a heavy ash buildup that they dripped onto the shelf, necessitating grinding, or that they collected fragments blown around in the kiln. Worst of all, however, was the feeling I got from pulling out the piece that I had the most work invested in. Before I could even see the crack I could tell that the piece had suffered the dreaded dunting. There must be something about the draft that runs through the kiln as it cools that randomly causes pieces to crack in this manner. Whatever the cause, I just have to accept the bad along with the good. And remember the adage that I often tell my students—if you're making something important, make more than one.

Click here to view my latest soda-fired work.

Soda Firing November 2010

I didn't put many pieces in this recent soda firing, but I took the opportunity to experiment a little with texture and some different glaze techniques. At right, there are two stoneware tea bowls that I sprayed with a mixture of wood ash and whiting (about 5 parts to 1). I was trying to emulate the look of a real wood-fired piece, and I came fairly close.

The two tea cups feature carvings. The lower one is straight stoneware, whereas the upper one was dipped in a white crackle slip before being incised. I'm pretty happy with both.

You can see more on my Flickr page.

October Soda Firing

Wow, it seems like it's been forever since the last soda firing. The truth is, our kiln shelves were getting really bad, and the next firing could have caused one to crack or warp bad enough to collapse and ruin a large quantity of pottery.

Thankfully, the budget finally allowed us to buy some new shelves, and The Wolf fired up the "behemoth out back" aka the MCG soda kiln.

I've posted some of my best pieces on Flickr, and I'll post a few more once the subsequent decal firing is completed. Then later this week, we'll open and unload the gas reduction kiln...

Soda-fired Hakeme Plates

I made a few soda-fired plates with hakeme decoration with the intention of them being the serving trays for sake sets. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, one of them warped severely in the soda kiln, and will only be useful as a decoration. Still, I'm rather happy with the results.

Tokkuri and Ochoko

I'm working on a custom sake set for a customer, and I've been learning and experimenting quite a bit. The pieces above came out of the soda kiln today, along with a few other sake cups (ochoko). I'm planning to raku fire a serving tray, and then I'll also be making several more tokkuri (flasks) for her to choose from, as well as several more cups, fired in both wood and reduction firings.

Decal Mugs - Round One Results

I recently posted about my foray into the world of decal firing. Well, the results are in, and my efforts were met with both success and failure. One huge factor was that I used soda-fired pottery, which inherently produces various and hard-to-predict results. So some of the items cracked, warped or bubbled along the way.

The most successful pieces were the simple forms made with plain old stoneware and glazed with our most reliable white glaze. Shown at right is an example of one such piece, perhaps the best of the bunch. My favorite, however, was a lucky combination of Junji's white slip with clear wood ash glaze. It featured an image of Major Taylor. I gave it to MBC's new VP of Operations, Paulo Nzambi.

The Wolf

It's about high time I posted something about Amanda on this blog. She's one of my favorite people in the world, and someone who's taught me a great deal about pottery, teaching and life in general. Wise beyond her years, The Wolf is dedicated to her pottery, her students, her fiancé and her two Boston terriers, Molly and Tucker—not necessarily in that order.

She's also involved in virtually every piece of pottery I make, since she fires the kilns at MCG.

Go see her at the Three Rivers Arts Festival this weekend, where she'll be selling some wonderful pieces of functional pottery, as well as some decorative ceramic art and jewelry.

UPDATE: The Wolf now has her very own blog!