Good firing. Firing notes for me (and you, if you so choose) and tour of unloading for you.

Kiln pack was semi-normal. Full brick bottom shelf. Sculpture in back from here up, tallest a few inches shy of the roof (not enough for another shelf). Front two shelves stacked straight across and ranging from half to three quarters brick. Top of kiln had highest shelf staggered to better suit the ware available.

Torch-lit far burner with bad thermocouple. Night before, candled about an hour with peeps out to dry the kiln. Fired slowly at the beginning, within 30 degrees top and bottom by the three hour mark and dead even by body reduction. Was half to full hour slow turning up the gas and opening the damper a quarter inch at one point, wanting to keep top and bottom even. That cost some time. Temperature remained even by the numbers but c.1(?) fell 1.5 hours earlier on bottom than top; slowed the kiln down again while trying to even out. This kiln can move fast but it likes to be hotter on the bottom. Cones from there out fell half hour to hour apart, making me wonder why we fire with a pyrometer. Soda went in after c.8 fell on bottom and as it was falling on top. Used a full batch, mixed with pine bedding rather than wood shavings or mulch, seemed like there was extra wood in there, but texture was nice. Two batches, 1.5 on each side then 1.75 each side, recovering temperature in between. Dropped c.10 bottom past 2300 on the pyrometer turned down and dampered in for half hour to drop c.10 top and get a little more soda time, gaining no temperature, before turning off at 16.5 hours.

Good results.

Soda coverage was generally good, and not overly heavy. Bottom blasted, front and top heavy soda, varying elsewhere, the usual. I was worried about getting enough soda to the sculptures in back, but they came out well. The upper shelves had lighter soda away from the front and could have been packed more loosely at the side edges to encourage flow to the middle of the shelf.

Reduction was generally sufficient but didn’t seem overly heavy. The copper red glaze was oxidized or burned out throughout the kiln, though the affected persons were happy with the results. Soda got in a little later than it did on the firings where I’ve gotten excellent reds, but still within the usual window. Other glazes looked good. Carbon trapping at bottom, especially front, and lower edges.

Soda travel seems mostly to be front to back. Soda got over the top of the kiln from the sides and into the lower shelves from the sides; the upper couple of shelves had soda movement front to back with limited less-directional soda. This may have been due to the staggered arrangement. The lower shelves had soda movement front to back but also had a good amount moving back to front as well as from the sides, enough to gloss the primary exposed surfaces. The bottom shelf was distinctly front to back movement.

If I have not previously mentioned, I fire Lillstreet’s soda kiln. Any given kiln is - maybe - a third full of my work, the rest being other students’ work. Typically I’ll lead the loading and unloading teams for ‘my’ kilns - soda students participate to learn more about the process. It works wonderfully if the same team loads and unloads - we can talk about what we think will happen as the kiln gets loaded, and examine each piece on the way out. This kiln has only only a few pieces of mine - twentyish teabowls, some more pods.

And now for the tour:

Unbricked. I had a bunch on the front line. This firing I figured out where and how I wanted every piece loaded, glazed, and wadded, well ahead of time. Not everyone works that way, but it’s easier for me.

Top front. I have a teabowl to the left of the post. I tried three new wadding recipes on the soda teabowls and am pretty pleased with them. Also tried out two new slips on the soda clay, but haven’t run them on the porcelain yet. After seeing the results, they’re worth trying on porcelain too.

Middle front. Lots of my porcelain teabowls. I tried a copper glaze as well as an iron saturate. Both pretty nice, need to do some more. Ran the moon rocks shino again, the one that sugared, but thinner - and while it developed that lovely purple color again, the surface is glossed over, so I’m happy. The carbon trap shino again worked fine but I’m not sure I’m enamoured of it. None of the porcelain is slipped this time, either; I think I prefer some slip on it.

Bottom… blasted with soda, lots of carbon trapping. Not sure how I feel about the carbon trapping on the porcelain yet. Definitely liking it on the soda clay, and that brain crawl shino teabowl at the lower right is fantastic. I don’t know why I didn’t put the front line closer to the edge of the shelf throughout.

Second shelf back at the top; the box at the bottom has half a dozen cups that go with it. They’re pretty sweet together.

Had to pull the work off the next layer down because the bricks were stuck. This is the level below it. Seeing the top of Elena’s sculptures in back, too.

Yes, that’s a lean. The guy on the bag wall is mine; I made up an ash glaze and put it on a couple of the soda clay teabowls. The results were unexpected and perhaps profound. Is that sculpture leaning into the copper glazed vessel? Why, yes it is. All were loaded stably enough. Fortunately the marriage was not permanent. The copper glazed piece was bare on the outside; now it’s gray and pink and tan… I love having copper glaze on porcelain at the back of the kiln.

Here’s the bottom shelf. Directly in front of the flue entrance were a pair of unglazed pieces. One is my mixed reclaim and the other is soda clay. Nice, both. One of my ash glazed pieces is down back as well; it’s also a gem.