Here is another sample of what I did at the workshop… and the prototype for my new direction. I don’t necessarily want to convert to soda firing, but I want to see if the same technique will work with the salt kiln that I’m so fond of. This cup is soda fired at cone 10, with heavy reduction. The extreme red flashing is from adding water into the kiln through diffusion from a brick. There are hints of carbon-trapping, too. I have been drawing inlay on my pots recently (I started doing it during the workshop because of various suggestions. They tried to convince me to use cobalt blue, but I prefer my black slip. The only thing that bothers me about inlay is that I end up wasting a little bit of slip, and it dyes my reclaim buckets gray. I guess there are ways around dying my reclaim gray like using a different bucket, but it still won’t prevent me from wasting the slip. I guess I will just use smaller and smaller brushes 🙂

I really do want to try this new direction for my work… the soda fired cup is made with a porcelainneous stoneware recipe from my professor– I only bought a 50 pound bag of it during the workshop and used it all up. I am considering using up the rest of my salt clay and then switching to the new clay body– making a big batch and maybe even soda firing and what-not. It sounds so ridiculous when I say it, because on campus I have kind of been avoiding the soda kiln– one of the grad students has been stuffing it full of soda Gail Nichols-style. It’s really annoying for those of us who don’t use the same clay body and don’t want everything to be glassy with soda. I guess I wouldn’t have to worry about putting any soda in it when I fire… I could fire residual until he graduates 😀 Introducing salt is a lot of fun, but introducing soda seems tedious. Maybe it’s because they suggest spraying it in with a giant pesticide sprayer… and it just makes a mess. I would just make burritos or something, but I don’t know how effective it would be. Anyway, I head out of town tonight. I will arrive on campus tomorrow sometime earlier in the day. I can’t wait to get back to my Lockerbie kickwheel 🙂