With Risk comes Disaster...

Overall, I have had very few pots that died in the kiln. Some cracks yes, but actual kiln death? Not really. I have been very very lucky. Well, not really luck. See the more you control the environment the less likely you have this issue. And Control is based on leverage and knowledge. Well in the Electric kiln there is a lot of control and the firing is done by someone with a lot of experience. Further, tried and tested glazes are used.

Oh I have experimented with glazes, and some ash in there and such, but the risks have been minor. Here in the last Soda Fire, I was quite clear about the risks being taken.  I am only showing a few pots below so you can see the highlights and disasters and what was learned.  For the record, I am only showing my work. Maria and Kuky's pieces were fine!

Here you can see on the right the FAIL of the ash glaze, the recipe needs a serious overhaul. On the left you can see where it actually was working with the Shino...

On the bottom you can barely see the Shino, it's not bad. Ignore that the wadding isn't cleaned up, that is fixable. What I want you to see is the body of the bowl. Yes, this is what the Soda and reduction can do.  The inside is crap, ignore that. This is what can be done in this kiln.

Here the Shino isn't great but really the thing I want to highlite is that a direct drop of soda screwed up the pot. 

You saw the body of this storage jar first, here is the lid. Look at how that glaze broke over the edges. Again, a great example of what CAN happen.

What I learned was that we need to fix the ash glaze, I will test it next time in a less ambitious manner.  We need to not do a direct soda to pot drop, only into the fire with this method or go back to spraying.

I also learned I can fire this kiln by myself !

What this moved me to do?

Test tile all our standard glazes. They are viewed as oxidation/electric ^6 but we need to see what reduction/gas ^6 looks like with them as this can radically change the look. It would be nice to know what the palette is on this.

Also, I want to do more Soda Fire and I want to do more "liner glaze" only, keeping the outside body free for the soda. With this in mind, I think next step is some flashing slip...