Soda Firing Dissection
Back Stack Load
Front Stack Load
Back Stack Post Firing
Front Stack Post Firing
This is my second time firing off the IUS soda kiln. The first happened over the summer and my aim then was to get used to the kiln and the new studio space. With that acquired knowledge, the main purpose of this firing was an exploration of flashing slip and wadding.
Flashing slips:
One key difference I noted right away was that the kiln atmosphere was more soda rich. The reasoning behind this is quite simple, 1: the kiln is considerably smaller than my previous kiln (a whole stack less and about 15” shorter), 2: we use 3 pounds of pure soda ash (Na2CO3) instead of a 50:50 mixture of soda ash (Na2CO3) and baking soda (NaHCO3) which results in 33% more soda. With that said, I wanted to lean into it and play around more with flashing slips in the hopes of capturing more of the flame path. This entailed raiding all of the IUS pantries for their flashing slips and researching a couple of my own. In the end, I discerned a couple slips that really piqued my interest: RJ Wood Flash, Randy Johnston, Helmer Slip, Maeden Flashing Slip, and Casey Beck Flashing #11. The next steps for me are to further explore these slips through recipe manipulation and patterning application.
Wadding:
Every atmospheric potter has that struggle with the dreaded white dots, that bare dry spot left over from where the wadding was. I really did not mind them until I wanted to play around with tumble stacking my pots. That is when I found Casey Beck’s recipe to use Newman Red Fire Clay instead of EPK. I really was excited by the results of the residual red mark. Beyond that, I started reading more online about wadding and how not many people are forthcoming with there recipes beyond the classic 50:50 EPK : Alumina. I read that Simon Levin used fireclay alongside sand in his wood firings. This really sparked my curiosity and, again, I raided the IUS pantries for all their high refractory clay. My list was: Hawthorne Bond, Goldart, Salt Lick Stoneware, C-Red Ball Clay, XX Saggar Clay, OM4, Helmer Kaolin, and Lizella. My initial results show that C-Red Ball Clay and Lizella give similar results to Newman Red, and the rest are more in line with EPK. However, I will need to do a more in-depth search and further research in the near future.
