At 10am yesterday the ten people who had work in the latest soda firing at Shadbolt Centre arrived, full of anticipation. Six of them had spent the last few Mondays attending a 'Making Pots for Soda Firing' workshop with Arlynn Nobel. She had advised them on making pieces that would be enhanced by the effects of soda and last Monday demonstrated the spraying of flashing…
We opened the Shadbolt Centre's Soda kiln today but before I share photos of that excitement I'll post some showing the end of the firing last Wednesday. Every single piece of wadded ware was loaded into the kiln on Tuesday by soda workshop leader Arlynn Nobel and technicians Jay MacLennan and Tony Wilson. We were told that it wasn't a tight pack.. all good.…
My title sounds a bit like a risqué petticoat, but no, it refers to the special, very liquid slips that are sprayed onto bone dry or bisqued stoneware pieces prior to a soda or salt or wood firing. They react to the surrounding flames and will lend a delicious opaque colour, often red-brown, orange or blue, or will encourage orange peeling. There's so much to…
Last Wednesday we, the Soda Workshop people, were invited to show up at the Shadbolt kiln for the big reveal. We waited until everybody was there before removing any of the delicious new ware. Perhaps because we were only eight participants (due to a couple of last-minute drop-outs) there was lots of space around each pot and there seemed to be orange peeling or warm…
Last Friday I took myself over to Shadbolt Centre in Burnaby to join the other participants in the soda firing. The kiln wasn't quite ready for introducing soda so Linda Doherty suggested I check out the Craft Fair that was taking place in the main building that day, and Saturday and Sunday. First I took a lovely Fall stroll down to Deer Lake in the…