Soda Planter #004

Wheel-thrown soda fired planter with drainage - glazed in black and light blue on porcelain. This piece has some of the speckly grey created by the atmosphere in the soda kiln - it's always a joy when pieces come out of the kiln with that!

4” tall x 4” wide

What does it mean that a piece is soda fired? In short, each piece from the soda kiln is different and I’m never going to be able to repeat the same result again. We fire our soda kiln at MudFire Studio as a team, and it requires several days of work as we load the kiln, fire it, and unload a few days after it’s cooled down. Each time we unload the kiln, it’s like getting to see a whole bunch of gifts.

The beauty of firing as a group means we get a variety of colors from our glazes, since each glaze and each piece reacts differently inside the atmosphere of the kiln, and they react and interact with each other inside the kiln as it fires. The glazes and clay, the soda ash we add in while the kiln is firing, combined with the way we fire our soda kiln as a team - creates magical pieces, making matte glazes drippy, letting glazes run into each other on the piece, and allowing one glaze to show a myriad of colors.

Curious about more of the process? Check out my instagram for some process videos of firing and unloading the soda kiln.