A good look at the Soda Glaze

Ok, some of this I have already posted, but now with new pix. There are a total of three bowls that were soda glazed.  You can see the unglazed sides and see an orange hue, this is the effects of the soda. On the glaze surface you can see some sparkle look to it, this is the soda effect as well.  Also the way the colors shifted making the glaze, well unrecognizable to us (as no one remembers what was put on the bowls) is also a soda effect.

Lastest Completed Projects

So here are Christmas gifts that are all fired.  The bowls and plates were made out of the reclaim clay. 

Projects in the works

You can see wet pots here.  Some is marbled, and those are not trimmed yet.  On the table are bowls that have been slip decorated with a blue slip (yes it looks pink, but it fires blue).

So these are Christmas gifts, still need to be glaze fired as of this post.

Moving towards the holidays...

So today I started a fire, warmed up the studio.  I threw some bowls, had a few casualties.  The reclaim clay is still very soft but throwable.  I am doing 2# bowls, I fear throwing something larger would not work given how soft they are.  Not my best work, but I am getting bak into the groove.

It really felt good to be usung the kickwheel again.  It is so much more comfortable on it then the electric wheel.

A second soda fire was done at Cup & Bowl yesterday.  Multiple pieces which included my other two bowls i had set aside.  I looked up more information and I am reay for the next fire to have a different application of soda and to have a flashing slip on the pots.

Lastly, based on this... i need a 9 gallon + propane tank.  I am going to convert the electric kiln I have into a gas kiln for soda firing and reduction firing.  I will clearly have fo wait as I cannot afford this yet.

I can fight the WINTER at last

I don't do well with cold
It is hard to throw in the cold
The water involved in throwing makes it worse
I have arthritis and so cold really hurts and makes it hard to do a lot of things
My studio is a garage

Solution, I need heat in my studio
Solution, the cheapest way is to add a wood burning stove as insulating the garage would be required to add forced air and space heaters failed to work.

After a lot of bullshit and fighting for months to deal with this, a friend helped me and so I bought the stove and he installed it today.  So now, at last, I have heat. And I can once again throw at home.

Just in time, I have a ton to get done in the next three weeks.

Soda Glaze test

Yup yup, a test of soda glaze.  The first done at the Cup&Bowl EVER!! 

Kuky did it in an old electric kiln she converted to gas.  It was fired to a ^4, was aiming for ^5 but it didn't hit it.

The glaze was... well that is a problem. See I created a bunch of bowls for a prior project months ago. I set three aside that I glazed only the inside for the purposes of testing out the Soda Kiln, we were only in the planning stages.

Well it was so long ago, I do not remember what I did!! We looked and debated, but frankly the effect of the soda on the glaze makes it all speculation at this point.

Also note, this was speckled buff clay.  Pinkish when wet and a full with dark iron spots when fired.  Execpt that is during our typical electric (read oxidation) fire.  Soda fire is ALWAYS a reduction. Even if you don't do a lot of reduction, you get a bit of a "water reduction" due to the addition of water.

Kuky sprayed dissolved baking soda in water into the kiln.  We decided it could use more.

But look at the "sparkle" soda effect on the unglazed outside of this pot.  There you can see a clear mark of a soda fire.

Porcelain Hates Me

Porcelain hates me, it get it.  The wet plates you see in the prior post... yup they cracked.  Not an S-Crack, but a drying issue.  Unlike I have ever had before.  Why?  Because porcelain needs everything to be delicate and careful and guess what... I ain't delicate... sad.

So that killed that set of Christmas gifts.  I move on...