The First Official Test Firing

is now cooling.

It was a loose stack, but not ridiculously so. We went into body reduction at 012, just as with a ^10 firing, then into a light climbing reduction until ^4 started to bend. We added the soda when ^5 was soft.

When firing at home, I add my soda ash/ baking soda combination in a mixture with wood curls and water, on a length of angle iron the way one would add salt to a kiln. (Somewhere around here I have a video clip of this. I am too lazy to look for it right now but will post it this weekend.) During another firing of Watershed's soda kiln, I used that method and the resulting pots were quite dry - not sure if it was due to the method or not, but to be on the safe side I thought we should try the more conventional approach. Watershed's kiln is built differently than mine, and the ports are much higher...I don't know why that should affect anything but maybe it does.

Unloading Saturday! Pics to follow.