Scenes from a Firing

Most photos by Cindy Chiuchiolo - thanks Cindy!

Last weekend I did a firing workshop at Watershed with a superfun group of ladies from Maine and Massachusetts. We were graced with perfect weather - low 70s and sunny skies. We glazed Saturday morning, loaded Saturday afternoon, candled the kiln overnight, and fired on Sunday. The kiln had a pokey start - I was worried for a bit there that we might be in for a late night. But it caught itself up and we started spraying the soda by 4 pm. ^10 went down around 6:30 - in tandem with ^11, with the bottom a bit behind. As I always do at Watershed, I had a blast, and I hope participants did, too.

The soda kiln at Watershed is designed a bit differently than mine - higher soda ports, looser bag wall - in addition to just being a bigger kiln. The soda spray method definitely works better on this kiln than the soda salad method of application does! Once I tried the soda-salad method in the Watershed kiln. Everything above the bagwall was dry as chalk. The spray method creates a more even application of soda, which is either good or bad, depending on what you are looking for. While I have generally been happy with the work out of this kiln in the past, I do miss my juicy soda spots!

We'll be unloading on Wednesday, as well as grinding and washing the shelves, sweeping the kiln pad, and all the other little things necessary to observe the girl scout rule in a communal space.   Watch here for the unloading pics!