A Whiter Shade of Pale

Well, I unloaded the firing at zero-dark-thirty this morning! Just when you think you know what you're doing, the kiln will surprise you - or at least, me. 

I knew this firing was different than the most recent firings before it. The back-pressure flame was very transparent, even once the sun had set, which usually makes the flame more visible. Even if I pushed the damper all the way in, the flame didn't get any longer, although I did get back pressure out the burner ports, which would indicate a very heavy reduction. So, weird mixed signals all around. The kiln also stalled for nearly two hours with ^11 bending on top & ^10 just barely tipping on bottom. Nothing I did would move those cones! Eventually I had to turn the kiln off, mostly out of concern that a long hold at 10/11 would cause warping. 

Small blessing: that didn't happen. In fact I had only one second in the entire kiln, and that a very minor flaw: one mug got a piece of wadding stuck inside, but it was a very small piece and I can make the resulting flaw almost invisible with my trusty Dremel tool. 

But the pots are very pale, obviously oxidized. I am always hoping for that golden tan that is a common soda-fired surface on b-mix, and which I got quite successfully in the last two firings. I'm not too disappointed - they aren't what I hoped for, but they have a delicate prettiness of their own - but I am a bit worried because I don't know why this firing was different. It may be that in my efforts to tip those cones during the stall I inadvertently slipped the fire into an oxidizing state? I feel like I would have noticed that! But I don't have a better explanation.  

Anyway, that's clay life for ya! I've never been one to hide my errors or pretend to perfection. I think it's important for students & early-career potters to know, they aren't screw-ups! Clay is just like that; there are so many variables that we all get unexpected results sometimes. 

If you want to see the pieces in real life, many will be at the Portland Pottery Holiday Show, December 13th - 24th, from 9 am - 7 pm. Also, you are my invited guests to the opening night party, Thursday December 12th from 5 - 9 pm. I'll be tending bar in my festive finery! 

One Weird Trick, Chapter 2

 I've been doing a new thing over on Patreon: trying out the tricks I see potters using in Instagram reels. they are - naturally! - harder than they look. It's one thing to see someone who has done it hundreds of times, & quite another to see someone try it for the first time. It gives you an idea how difficult it would be to learn. 
Anyway, I've got a new one! Posting it here for you to check it out. If you enjoy it, please follow me on patreon. Lots of free content, & even more for paid subscribers. 

 

The Luck of the Draws

 

I learned something today: I learned that I have been using way more soda than I needed to. Also, draw rings are fun! 

These are the 3 rings I drew from my current firing, which will probably reach temperature while I am typing this post - so if I disappear for a minute, forgive, I've just gone to check the kiln. 

They are in order of draw, left to right. When I drew the first, I was shocked but how shiny it was, since I had only sprayed once into each port - I expected it to be almost dry. With this new information, I drrew the 2nd before the sprayer was half emptied. I was tempted to stop then, because the ring has a satiny, orange-peel surface; but I couldn't believe - despite evidence! - that I could possibly have applied enough soda. Besides, the front of this kiln always gets a heavier spray, so for goos measure I sprayed twice more into each of the rear ports. I left the kiln burn clear, then pulled the third ring - and saw the first faint evidence of pitting, a sure sign it's time to stop. I still had nearly half the canister of soda solution. 

BRB

^10 is soft, not quite half over. I wish I had another ring to draw! I'm definitely doing that every time now. What mainly stopped me in the past - well, besides basic laziness, and anyway, I didn't think I needed to, because I was getting good results - I thought it would be hard to see the top cones. that was no problem at all! 

Rings of Fire

My loopy little friends

Since I built my first soda kiln in 2010, I kinda got out of the habit of using draw rings. I had the old kiln so dialed-in, so I didn't need them, then it seemed like too much trouble after we built the new kiln. 

My last firing, though? was not great. Everything was gray, and there was some pitting & blistering of the soda glass. The pitting is its own problem - Jeff Zamek has some thoughts on that - but the gray coloration is simply too much soda. Though I (obviously!) weigh out the material so I use the same amount each time, last firing I used my new, snazzy sprayer, which unlike the old one was able to spray all the liquid into the kiln, instead of leaving a few inches in the bottom. Also, without thinking I used hot water, which can hold more soda in solution, so I may have inadvertently sprayed more soda into the kiln than usual. 

I have some ideas of how to correct my unhappy result, but instead of just guessing & hoping, I'm going to employ a technique used by smarter potters than I am: draw rings! These small, looped-shaped bits of clay are placed near a spyhole so they can be drawn out during the soda process, to assess how heavy a coat of glaze has accumulated. I actually have not used draw ring since graduate school, so this should be interesting.

They are cooling in the bisque right now, along with the pots for the firing. I plan to make a little video of this process for my Patreon page - click here to subscribe! 

A Lot to Learn: A tale of Some Ridiculously, Laughably Terrible Photos

 In olden times, before the internet, I only needed photos of my work (in slide form) to apply to art fairs and send to stores. The photos were representative of the body of work, not necessarily intended to sell that individual piece. Once or twice a year I'd take five or ten pieces to a photographer who specialized in ceramic art, and pay him a hundred bucks or so, and he'd shoot the photos I'd use for my applications. 

Then along came the interwebs, and online sales, and suddenly I needed photos to sell individual pieces. Getting a pro to shoot these was out of the question, in terms of time - I'd have to schedule a shoot after every firing! - and money. Luckily digital photography appeared on the scene at the same time, so I learned to shoot my own photos

I'm not Peter Lee, but I can shoot adequate enough photos of pottery to get me into art fairs, and that's been good enough for me. Today, tho! Today I shot some Christmas ornaments, with the intention to list them online. Damn these were hard to photograph! The first shots were so ridiculously, laughably terrible that I had to show you. 

These were shot in a south-facing room on a sunny day, with three true-white photo bulbs around them. They look like they were shot at midnight in a mine shaft! I think my mistake was choosing a white background for them - just some freezer paper I had around. The camera tried hard to balance the reflected light, and this dreadful gloom was the result. Next time I will choose a grey background.

These are just some fun little doodads - I plan to list them online, but I won't be applying anywhere with ugly sweater ornaments, I assure you, so I don't plan to reshoot; I'll just "fix it in post," as the cool kids say. 

Was it Jimmy Buffet who said, "If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane?" I think that's especially true for laughing at ourselves. Anyway, enjoy my terrible horrible no-good-very-bad photos. I've got some editing to do. 

ETA: You can see the listings, and the photos after editing, here. 

ACC: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

For weeks now I have been both excited and stressed about the upcoming ACC Baltimore Wholesale Show. So much to do: Define the wholesale line! Take photos, create forms, plan a production schedule. Build a booth! (What space will I use to build it? To store it afterwards?) Will it fit in the Grey Lady? No? Okay, check out trailers. Where will I stay? 

I'd already paid the $400 upfront they ask you for, to hold your space. When the contract arrived, I put off reading it in detail, the way you do when you are stressed about something. (On the plus side, I tend to do lots of other things in the process of procrastinating. I got a lot done!) The first thing I noticed were the FEES. Some I expected: of course I'd have to pay for pipe* and drape or carpeting, if I was going to need it. (I wouldn't, because it's $256 to rent a 10x10 square of carpet. I didn't even bother to find out how much the pipe & drape was) But mother of dog: WIFI? It's $135 to access WIFI?? Before I had even finished reading the contract, the expenses were looking like this:

• $1200 booth fee (I knew about that, obvs)
• $65 "facility fee" Wut? Just make it part of the booth fee, you knew there was going to be a facility involved, the show doesn't take place between dimensions. 
• $40 Membership fee. Um, okay, I can see that, I guess.
• $135 for the freakin' wifi, WTF
• $301.80 Mandatory labor to unload the truck/trailer. FUCK THAT NOISE 
• Electricity: $95 for 500 watts...that's FOUR bulbs. $120 for 1000W. That's not more than I expected but...it's an indoor show. Everyone is going to need lights! Just be honest and roll it into the booth fee. 
• Exhibitors are not permitted to use power tools to erect their booths: must hire labor from the hall to do that, so who even knows how much that would end up costing.  

I know some of these are requirements of the hall, but that doesn't actually matter to me: what matters is a show that I could barely afford to do before got pushed into the prohibitive range by a bunch of hidden costs. If these expense were stated upfront, as the booth fee was, I would never have applied.  Nor are these expenses stated anywhere all in one place - I really had to go looking for them. I admit I side-eye the organization a bit, about this: making it hard to know what the real costs are until after the deposit is paid, surely results in more forfeited deposits. Hey-hey-hey, money for nothing, right, ACC?

And - icing on the cake - I asked for my booth not to be on the perimeter. Guess where they put me? If you guessed on the perimeter, you win! That wouldn't have been enough to cancel,but it was enough for make me feel a little dubious, even before the additional expenses.

Man I am bummed about this. I've lost my $400 deposit - of course - but also what I had hoped was a way to really grow my business. And it seems I never finish learning how much I have to learn. 🙁

I know there is a bright side here - hey, now I can relax and enjoy the remainder of my break, and just make pots - and I will focus on it shortly. I just need a minute to process my disappointment.

Oh hey, Happy Festivus! Perfect: it's the airing of grievances!



*When I first typed this, I typo'd it to "pope and drape." Like, no wonder it's spendy! His time is valuable. 😀

Upside Down Plates

Potters, in my experience, are generous folks. One of the joys of teaching in a communal studio like Portland Pottery is learning from my fellow potters. It's a regular even to see something wonderful and ask the maker to share it.

Last week I learned from Brian Buckland how to make these upside-down plates, with undulating lines from a twisty cut-off wire. Brian learned it from Tyler Gulden, and so on and so on, it's turtles all the way down.

It's also a joy to be the one sharing!

Here are the steps, pictorally:

Center a three pound hump low & wide, as if you were throwing a regular plate

Throw a foot ring

With a wooden rib, make a deep undercut - about a half-inch 

Cut of plate from the bat with a twisty wire, but leave it on the bat. You can cut straight or not, depending on the pattern you want. 

Place a second bat on the foot ring. Line up the pin holes to get the plate as close to the center of the second bat as you can. 

Flip the plate between the two bats, like a clay sandwich

I couldn't get a good picture of the next bit, but you have to reach between the bats and get your fingertips (gently!) into the undercut, and peel the plate off the first bat. Be very careful , as it's easy to mess up the rim. This bit takes some patience, and some practice.

Even if you are very careful, it will look like crap when it first comes off the bat. Don't worry! It's supposed to.

See? Looks like crap. 

It should be pretty close to center, because you lined up the two bats pretty well, but make whatever adjustments necessary to get it as close as you can now that it's unstuck. Now you are going to snap the bat back on the wheel, and with a sponge, persuade the wall to come up until it is shaped like a plate or shallow bowl:

Optionally, you can trim out some of the center. This is probably a good idea so you can compress the center - I am a little worried that the ones I didn't trim out will crack.

If you are really, really good, your plate might be done! Mine all needed trimming underneath after they'd dried to leatherhard.

Flames Good, Flames Bad

A dramatization

Ugh, there is SO much to learn, in clay, so many new things to go wrong! The best that we can hope for is for things to go wrong when they don't do any harm, and by that measure I am a winner today.

I finally had a chance to fire the kiln I loaded last week. Candled just fine, no surprises...one of the valves was locked in ice, but I chipped/ melted it out, all good. Reached body reduction, all good...but when I went out to check if  ^05 was falling yet, I noticed one of my burners was behaving weirdly.

It's a measure of how dedicated I am to you, my darling readers, that I almost went for the camera before shutting it down, but then I thought: no, when propane and fire are doing unexpected things, the time to put an end to it is right freaking now. So I turned it off, then waited a bit and relit it - and it did it again.

The flame, which ought to come out the end of the burner and (mostly) into the kiln, was igniting way down at the primary air. I have never had that happen before, and I don't know what has caused it to happen, but in addition to just not being a safe state of affairs, it meant that a bunch of the heat was not going into the kiln. The firing was not going to proceed properly no matter what.

Luckily I have no urgency about this firing - it's always good to have pots but nobody pounding down my door in the middle of February. I have time to ask people way smarter than I am (Hi, Tyler Gulden!) what the problem might be and how to fix it.

So, now I have a sunny Sunday afternoon off, with just a tiny nagging worry that I might have to invest in a new burner. It's pushing 50°, and in February in Maine, it's criminal to let such a day go to waste.

Loose Stack, Good Stack!

I decided to wait unloading the kiln until tomorrow morning, so I could do it as a Pottery Tour event, but I couldn't wait that long to take a peek; so peek I did. Looks good! Specifically, the soda vapor looks unusually evenly distributed.

You might remember that this load was stacked loosely, because I didn't have enough pots to stack it tightly. I also was taking the opportunity to test the theory that a loose stack might give me better soda distribution. It kind of looked like that is correct, so I posted it to the Soda & Salt Fire facebook group, and lo, turns out everybody, or almost everybody, already knew that! Well, that's me, always the last to know.

I'm kind of excited about this information, because it means that I can fire more often. I always feel guilty firing when the kiln is not packed solid, because I thought I was wasting propane heating up empty air. But it's not a waste if it gives me better pots.

So, hey, learning experience - in a good way, for a change!

If you are local to me, or want to hop a jet for Augusta, ME (we do have an airport) come visit me for the Pottery Tour tomorrow. I'll be unloading the kiln early, because I can hardly wait to see the rest!

Silver Lining

Yeah, so, that art fair? The one I was so excited about? Kind of stunk for me. And by "kind of" I mean I missed making the booth fee back by $1.

I'm told this was a good fair, until this year. It's that Reverse Midas Touch thing again!Or else some other factors, like a new, larger fair this year - the MCA put on a fine crafts show this year, for some reason choosing the same weekend as the established Designing Women show. (Actually I know the reason - they are piggybacking on the crowd that already comes out for the 50-year-old WSCH 6 Sidewalk Art Festival, which features mostly fine art. (Mostly paintings of lobster traps and lighthouses, honestly. Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Still, sucked for the people who counted on the Manchester show.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining, and I was lucky enough to find two: 1) I had been meaning to rebuild my art fair display for years, but something else was always more important; now it is done and 2) I now have tons of inventory to get to my various accounts for the tail end of summer, going into leaf-peeping season and beyond to holiday shopping. Some of it is already at the Portland Pottery Cafe, and more on its way to Quench in Belfast, Mudfire in Decatur, GA, and my website, if it is a bright enough day to take photos. 

Moving right along!

Flawed Halos

Like clay, my efforts at soap making sometimes produce surprises. While I love me a good learning experience*, I prefer one that results in a usable product.

I recently unmolded two batches of soap. When I first sliced them into bars, they looked pretty much as I expected. Over the next few weeks, though, I observed a change occurring around the tulip-red inserts: a pinkish halo was growing! Look:

Energize

Cherry Moon

The red colorant was bleeding into the soap around it! It is, of course, a colorant specifically for soap, and I've used it before. Maybe it was in a higher concentration? Maybe I put it in earlier or later in the process? Hmmm.

Like a lot of clay surprises, this one does not affect the function of the soap at all. The colorant does not come off on your hands, for example, or color the lather. The halos are even kind of pretty...it's just that I would have liked to have chosen to put them there.

Next time I will try a red colorant from a different supplier. 

Ah, well. Won't stop me selling them. They are ready now, and I should have the listing up well before Valentine's Day.

Speaking of selling, I am rebuilding the sales page of my website. Still using the paypal buttons; I didn't feel like trying to figure out a new system tonight. I am going with larger photos this time. There's exactly one pot on the page right now, and it is this one:

$48 - click here to purchase.

Well, one is better than none, right? I'm off to watch a couple of episodes of Firefly.

*NOT REALLY

Our Friend Failure

I have a couple of student who need to see this! I told you guys:  If you're not failing, you're not trying! Keep counting down: 999, 998, 997...


From "Be Friends with Failure," by Stephen McCranie: http://goo.gl/6L5CF

Two Buttons and Two Bars of Soap

That's what I sold at the Portland Farmer's Market today. All of which were to friends.

Things that sucked about the Farmer's Market:

• POOR SALES. Obvs.
•  I had to park my car more than a mile away to find a place to park. Fortunately I was able to find a nearby metered spot to unload my work, but you're only allowed to occupy the spot for two hours - that's true all over intown Portland. I feared parking in the nearby garage would cost more than I made - and I would almost have been right. So I dropped off my stuff, parked at distance and hiked back.
• The farmers - some of them - were, how-you-say, unfriendly. I was careful to stay outside the designated farmer's market area, and not to take too much space, but some clearly felt that artists were interlopers. 
  

Things that did not suck about the Farmer's Market:

• Well, hell. Sold two buttons and two bars of soap. Would have liked to do more, but it beats a sharp stick in the eye. 
• If I had to sit around outside all day, I couldn't have asked for a better one. 
• Saw several friends out and about in Portland, a couple of whom came just to see me; the others were folks I used to work with, then drink with, back when I lived in Portland.
• I made a new friend! Cullen Concannon, of Silver and Stone Metalworks,
  
  who had her jewelry booth beside me. Cullen had sort of a slow day, too, but it seemed to get a little better toward the end. We chatted and kept each other amused during the slow parts (which is to say, all day) and Cullen was kind enough to drive me and my stuff back to my car.
• Came home with a jar of local honey, for my next batch of soap and for homemade granola, which beats the balls off of store bought. Recipe soon! 

So, by my count there were three things that sucked but five things that did not. Let's call that a success, shall we? Not that I'll be doing that particular event again! I may try the Saturday Farmer's Market, though; everyone* says it's a better event for artists.

*by 'everyone" I mean the exactly three people with whom I have spoken about this event. All agree!

Pushing Through

I can't say I'm fully recovered from my pukey meltdown of yesterday, but I was able to pull myself together enough to make some phone calls. In some cases, no one answered the phone at all. Ever. I called several different times, at different times of the day...no dice. Also, their extensions don't work. In others, I got a receptionist who directed me into voicemail. In only one case - a Maine store - did I actually reach someone and make an appointment. I will probably get that account.

This is what frustrates me: when I actually get the appointment - when they see and hold the pots - I get the account every single time. I'm not exaggerating: I don't think I've ever gotten in to see the buyer or gallery/store director and gotten a "no." This is how I know I'm not deluding myself. The work is not lacking. That isn't the problem. The problem is that I can't get them to answer the damn phone. Or email. And just showing up is obviously rude, all agree. I would never do that. So what's a poor potter to do?

I know what I used to do: I used to go the the American Craft Council wholesale show in Baltimore. But that's thousands of dollars, just for the booth fee, and never mind gas, hotel, and meals. Oh, and I'd probably have to rent a truck. And building the booth can run into some serious money also. To do all that I'd have to put thousands on my credit card, which I am extremely reluctant to do.

So, back to what I can do, and you know what? It's a learning process, like everything else about this business. Back when I collapsed everything I made on the wheel, I didn't quit, I pushed through it. I pushed through the lumpy and unlovely early efforts, the glaze failures, the firings that didn't reach temperature, and I will push through this, too.

How about you? How do you approach stores?

No Shortcuts

Thank heaven for Professor Cushing! It appears that despite my efforts to find ways around it - winging it, using software - I am going to have to learn to understand Unity Molecular Formulas. Very basically, I know what Unity Molecular Formulas are; they express the glaze formula as a count of molecules of glassformer, stabilizer (alumina), and flux, with the amount of flux weighted to one (that's why it's called Unity, get it?) and the silica and alumina amounts expressed relative to the flux. I just don't understand how to translate them to batch recipes that I can use. That's where the good professor comes in.

I few months ago, I bought a copy of his handbook. the link above goes to Amazon, the second to an address from which you can purchase from Cushing himself. It's probably worth getting an envelop & stamp, as I see the notebook is selling on Amazon for $190; whereas the professor offers it for $28. It's a great book utterly packed with knowledge and ideas; this particular chapter, though invaluable to me, happens to be on the boring side. I feel like an undergrad at Iowa State again: those soft chairs at the Parks Library were just way too comfortable. If I were sitting there now I'd fall asleep for sure.

And, clearly, I am utilizing another of my undergrad work-avoidance techniques: simple procrastination. Writing a blog post about RO Unity is miles better than reading about it!

Stop that, Lori. Stop it right now. If I post again before noon, EST, somebody remind me that I am supposed to be reading. 

Two Things that Didn't Work but Kind of Did

As I said in an earlier post, I was quite delighted with this year's Watershed Salad Days plates. (Here's mine, above.) The undulating surface particularly intrigues me. I can guess that is is made with a twisty bit of wire, but not sure precisely how.

And, after trying a few things, I am still not sure precisely how, as my efforts did not duplicate the effect, but here's a great thing about ceramics: everything you try will do something, and sometimes the somethings are as interesting as what you started out to do.

In this case, I centered a hump of clay as if I were going to make a plate. I used about 4 lbs, which is a lot of clay for what turned out to be a small plate, but I knew I would be cutting a lot of it away.

I used a single wire separated out from a length of steel cable, which you can buy at the hardware store to cut the hump, which was about an inch high, in half. I peeled off the top half and set it aside.

 

Then I used a wooden rib to bend the sides upward into a plate shape.

 

Voila!

This effect, while nice, was not  quite what I was looking for, as it created more of a pie-plate shape, with a flat bottom, than a bowl. The undulations were also smaller and closer together, but that's due to the wire used. A stretched spring might give a deeper, wider wave. 

So, next effort: I used my regular cut off wire on an oblong ball of clay, moving the wire in an undulating motion, and then stretched the resulting slab. 

This seemed closer to the surface of the original. After stretching and the addition of handles, my result looked like this.

This technique was less successful when I tried to cut round or square slabs - the wire met more resistance and there was an exaggerated difference between the depth of the wave on the sides vs the middle.

If I had to bet, I'd wager that Adam Pauleck used a stretched spring to make a an original, which he then cast into a hump mold, and then threw a foot onto each bowl.

I'm Melting....

These are silicone carbide shelves. Q) Are they supposed to melt like that?

Well. I thought the answer was a resounding NO, but it turns out that ceramic-bonded silicon carbide is less impervious to the aggressive fluxing action of the soda, and can suffer from "progressive grain boundary corrosion." Son of a bit.

These were bought used, for short money, along with some others that are holding up like champs - those must be nitrite-bonded.

I can't afford new shelves right now, so my option is to grind the living shirt out of these, and the - reluctantly, because I am well aware of the pitfalls - apply a thin coat of kiln wash to the undersides as well as the top. Oh, what a world, what a world.

Well, That Sucked

I just unloaded my bisque, and every piece that was thrown with B-mix Sand cracked, save two small salad plates. Not s-cracks or cracks along the foot ring; these cracks started at the rim and meandered. Sadly, the casualties included the vessel sinks. Was I raving about B-mix Sand before? I take it all back. Doesn't matter how easily it throws if nothing survives the bisque.

I didn't dry or fire especially quickly, and every other piece in the kiln survived just fine.

Good thing I am so very mild-mannered, or I'd be really aggravated right now.

I think I'll go have a drink. Maybe do some yoga, or something.

A Little Help from Perfect Strangers

Isn't the Internet awesome? I mean in in the original sense of the word: the internet fills me with awe. One thing I am learning isthat anything you want to do, technology wise, somebody out there knows you or someone like you wants to do it, and wants to help.

So you know I've been rebuilding my website, right? (If you don't know, you haven't been paying attention, because I haven't stopped yammering on about it for a week now.) I got it in my head that I wanted a slideshow, but Kompozer doesn't have a slideshow function, and I haven't got the first clue how one might go about writing code for such a thing. The internet to the rescue! The first site I found was 1-2-3 Slideshow, which creates flash animation slideshows. I was a bit daunted: while these are very professional-looking bits they are a bit...slick?...for what I had in mind. Like the cleverness of the device would itself be distracting. I tried it anyway, and it's easy to use: upload the photos, and the site builds the show for you. Unfortunately my photos looks pixel-y and horrible, as though all the pots were made from tiny Legos. Or maybe that was fortunately, because I kept on looking and found Ricocheting.com. This is a much simpler and more straightforward slideshow, and also easy to use: just upload up to 10 photos, and Ricocheting does the rest. There's even some code provided in the comments if you want to use more http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.dothan 10 images.
I'm like Goldilocks, of course: the first was too slick, this one is too artless. I'd like for the controls to look less like nuts and bolts, less alien to the rest of the page. I hate, for example, the thin black border around the table at the bottom; but my best efforts to discover how I could persuade that border to hide itself have been for naught. But, w'ev. I'll take it.

You can see the slideshow here.

Touched by an Angel

One of the joys and challenges of atmospheric firing are the surprise additions by the kiln. In every firing there will be a couple of pieces which the kiln gods singled out for special attention with a splash of green or brown or gray soda glass. This occurs when the soda vapor glaze builds up on the underside of a kiln shelf to the extent that it finally gives in to gravity, and a drip of it falls off, often onto a pot.
Sometimes it will be bubbly or fizzy, and brittle: in those cases, the piece is obviously a second or refire. I used to call any kiln kiss as a flaw even though I always admire them, but I've changed my mind about it. In December I unloaded a large bowl from the kiln, with a bright aqua drip of soda on the interior. Instead of relegating it to the seconds shelf, I composed a tag for it which began, "This piece has been kiln-kissed..." with a brief description of what caused the mark. That bowl got a lot of attention and sold before its "perfect" companions.
So now I will be labelling all my kiln-kissed pieces (the ones that are not functionally compromised) as such. I may even charge extra for them, since they are by necessity a rarity. I could cause more by not cleaning my kilnshelves, but that would result in far more loss, as most soda glaze drops are not of the smooth sort.
This load produced four of the kiln gods' favorites, an unusual lot. It feels more honest to tell the world the irregularity is what makes them special, and if I'm lucky maybe the world will agree.