Soda Invitational

A chance to get a "taste" of Soda. If you are interested, please try to coordinate this as a class activity with your teacher as your information source. Otherwise, please consult one of the resources listed below. Have fun!

A soda fired mug

A Little Soda: Intro to Lillstreet’s Soda Program

What is Soda Firing?

Soda Firing is a form of atmospheric glazing where sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and sodium carbonate (soda ash) are introduced into the kiln at high temperatures (2250-2300F). The soda immediately vaporizes and is carried throughout the kiln coating everything it passes with a thin layer of sodium oxide creating unique soda flashing effects.

Invitation to “Cone 10” students (prerequisite: one 10 week class) Get your free Ticket.

Students may fire one or two small pots using the guidelines below. We suggest cups/mugs, cereal bowls, or bottles. For Handbuilders, suggestions are a mug, a vase, or a very small study of a head or hand. Maximum size is 6x6 inches. Taller pieces work better than flat-no plates or tiles! This invitation expires September 2.

Get a free Ticket for each piece (maximum 2 pieces) at the Front Desk. After wadding, put your pots on designated shelves inside the Soda Kiln Room with the Ticket. Pots by soda students have space priority. Remember, soda pots can have unpredictable results! Have FUN!

Cone 10 Clay, Glazes and Soda Slips

• On functional pieces a liner glaze is recommended on the inside of the piece because soda has a difficult time reaching the insides of pots. Cone 10 glazes that work well as liner glazes: Temoku, Red Iron, Luster Shino, Gustin Shino, Shaners White, and Tom’s Purple. (There are glazes that don’t work-please use these six glazes.) DO NOT GLAZE THE OUTSIDE; THEY WILL BE REJECTED. Pick-up is outside the Soda Kiln Room.

• The soda will react with the bare clay body also, so it is not necessary to always cover the pot with a Soda Slip, which are in Wheel B. All Cone 10 Clay Bodies work well in Soda, and each has its own character. We recommend one piece “bare” with a liner glaze and one with a soda slip brushed on greenware. All pieces must be Bisk fired. We recommend these Soda Slips: Mustard, Smooth Orange, Rutile Slip, Blue-Green, Rougir, and Thompsons. Slips might show soda effects on one side of the piece and be dry on the other side; this is the nature of soda firing!

Wadding

Wadding must be used on all pots entering the Soda Kiln. Without wadding the soda will attach the piece to the kiln shelf.  You are wadding your work for STABILITY on the kiln shelves, and for SUPPORT of your piece! Please wad during your class and ask your teacher to help you! Found near the Spray Booth, keep the labeled Wadding bucket and plastic bag tightly closed after use. Roll small marble size balls of wadding and use Elmer’s Glue to glue them to the bottom of the pot. 3-4 is adequate for most pots. (Wadding is never allowed in the Cone 10 firings.)

Teachers can answer basic questions and the Soda Team is available to help! Consult with Fred, Adam, Amanda, Sam, or Nixon, or Karen.  

Glaze early, glaze often

Made something that you wanted to give out for Christmas?  As the holiday approaches, make sure that you keep up with the collection of your bisqued pieces and glaze them quickly.  There is two more weeks of firing left -- translation: 4 bisque firing and 4 glaze firing.  Check the calendar by the greenware shelves.  If you don't know where the calendar is, ask your instructor or a studio monitor.  I got an email from Lillstreet today:

We use 19 different food-safe and lead free glazes in our ceramics department.  We offer over 600 glaze samples but the possibilities are infinite! Ceramic glazes generally contain silica, which help form a glass-like surface and feldspars, which help the glass to melt.  Combinations of naturally occurring oxides are what help to create the different colors of glaze, such as cobalt blues or copper greens and reds.

Glazing is most important for earthenware vessels, which is the same clay that flower pots are made from, otherwise they would be unsanitary due to the porosity of the type of clay.  Glazing helps to seal the surface of the clay in order to keep liquids in...and bacteria out.  In addition to the functional aspect of glazing, their is also the ability to use glaze like paint and the surface of your pot becomes the canvas.  Glazes offer finshes that range from glossy to matte, and mottled to a solid color. Glazes may also enhance an underlying design or texture which may be either the "natural" texture of the clay or an inscribed, carved or painted design.

This is just a simple interpretation of what actually goes into a glaze forumla.  If you are interested in learning more, there are tons of books out there.  Also, check with your instructor if you have specific questions.

Most of all the work produced by students are fired in one of the two large Baileys in the kiln room.  But we also have a kiln for "atmospheric" firing and Lillstreet offer classes in "atmospheric" firing.  With atmospheric firing, you don't have to glaze the outside of the pots if you don't want to.  Check out the catalog for Winter classes and look for "Soda" classes if you are interested in taking one of those classes.

Visiting Artist and Potluck This Saturday!

A friend of Fred Follansbee's from Japan, Yoshi Kumon, will be around Lill this weekend and in town through Wednesday. He is a potter with experience soda firing and is interested to see how we do things.

The soda kiln will be loaded Saturday afternoon from 1:30 - 4:30, with an informal potluck to follow.

All are Invited!

Hopefully Yoshi will do some throwing. To quote Fred, "He has a very different way of throwing than we do in the U.S., so I think you would all be interested in seeing him and meeting him- he is very nice and likes to share ideas and knowledge".

Fred has visited Yoshi's studio, Akane-Gama. Here's an excerpt from Yoshi's website:

AKANE-GAMA pottery sits at the foot of Mt.Yatsugatake quasi-national park, where functional pottery is produced with Anagama (single chamber wood kilns) and a Soda kiln. The first Anagama kiln at Akane-Gama was built in 1986 and Soda kiln followed in 1999. Both processes are demanding and requires a great deal of labor for preparing fire wood, kiln firing and maintain kilns. I have been enjoying these pleasant labor over 30 years with gratitude.

I hope you all can make it or meet him on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.... Fred

Thanks for sharing Fred, See you there!

Gail Nichols at Lillstreet