First Soda of the Semester

This week was pretty hectic, but deadlines are steadfast and they need to be met.

This was the first soda firing post repair. A first glance tells me that I let the kiln oxidize way too much. Celadons are opaque and lack depth, cobalts are pitched more purple than deep blue. However, some of my clay body tests have yielded some lovely colorations.

I’ll need to sit with this firing for a little bit, especially since I only unloaded, took an initial glance and then left.

I continued my to explore down firing the kiln in a heavy reduction atmosphere with wood. Once I let the kiln sit at temperature for a half hour, I shut off the gas and sealed the kiln up as much as I could. I closed off the damper to around 1 inch and begun to feed in wood.

I used the chimney smoke to call the stokes and added more wood per stoke as the kiln cooled down. I down fired for two hours and hit a final temperature of 1995 degrees Fahrenheit.

My only thought to the over oxidations occurred when I did not put the kiln into enough of a reduction at body maturation or when the wood finally burned off and the coals burned hotter.

I’m definitely going to chat with Brian about his opinion later this week.