soda firing – Gillian McMillan — Rara Avis

Useful Pots

Gillian McMillan — Sun, 31 May 2026 01:06:33 +0000

Now that I don’t make many pots I tend to consider whether each piece is actually useful. Is the pot destined to be admired on a shelf or will it hold cookies, vegetables, milk, sugar, tea or, most likely in this latest batch, flowers? Even if the pot is decorated, carved or just amusing I’d like to think that it will be used for mashed potatoes or a jade plant. These resulting pots from a much-anticipated soda firing are all designed to find a use in your home. Now that Summer is fast approaching I have made four different vases for your garden gleanings, and also consider the jugbirds to be cool flower holders.

I’m particularly pleased with the round fellow, top right. It feels lovely to hold. But the other three are all special in their own way. I adore the dimpled one, the flattened-side one was fired on its side, and the taller one has sweet variety in its surface. All will have their special moments when holding the right flowers.

The robust pot with a hole is also a vase, of course. The interruption in the middle helps to keep tall delphinia upright!

I made two jugbirds for this firing. The beak on the bigger one was painted with my pale blue earthenware glaze and his body is ‘Blair’s Red’ flashing slip. The other fellow has a fine ‘Lorna’s Yellow’ breast.

Another piece I had high hopes for was treated well by the flames and soda. There are pleasing orange peel and warm colours all around the lidded jar. I can see this filled with homemade cookies!

I fired this carved bowl on wads on the plate. The cranberry red in the bowl is super! But the plate is warped because it was on the edge of a shelf and one side got lots of flame/heat/soda. Never mind..

I used the same copper red glaze to line this comfortable yunomi and one of my squared wiggle-wire dishes. Both are useful I imagine and have surfaces just the way I like them.

What else to show you? There was a more traditional jug for your milk or cider and mugs with comfortable handles.

Finally, there is a tea-pot that had a 2nd go-round in the soda kiln, and is much juicier, and a sweet little carved dish for your salsa. Jennifer, the teapot is yours if we can get Mike to take it with him to Edmonton.

Thanks for looking at all my useful pots, folks. Now I need to decide which ones should go where.

Spring Soda 2026

Gillian McMillan — Thu, 28 May 2026 22:43:31 +0000

Twice a year if I’m lucky, is how often I have the special pleasure of helping to unload a kiln full of soda-fired pots. Last Tuesday was one of those days. Alan needed the car so, for for the first time, I Ubered both ways. What a treat! There’s no way Cheryl will tolerate late-comers!

I had helped to load the front shelves on the previous Thursday so you can see how it looked then versus the colourful results we found when the big new door opened yesterday. It was my kind of firing, with apparently lots of soda introduced at the end of the firing last Friday, not too much grey carbon-trapping and lots of consistent orange peel.

As usual we formed a line from the kiln to tables set up outside, each of us taking the time to consider the result of each piece and exchanging information. There’s always a special liner glaze, a different clay or an unusual form to admire.

We were so busy that I didn’t have time to get to know the other participants in this firing. It was good to reconnect with David Lloyd and Glenn Lewis, and discuss the work with all of them. Perhaps I shall meet up with some of the others in future soda firings. After we’d unloaded all the front shelves our job was to scrape off all the glass from them, wipe off the dust and apply a new coat of kiln wash. Then we could discover what the back shelves had produced for us.

Then it was time to get all the remaining shelves cleaned and kiln-washed and in no time the pots were packed up and folks left.

Our local Leach apprentice, 90-yr-old Glenn Lewis, was testing samples of a new dark clay, sharing a kiln space with Julia. I didn’t mind at all when he remarked that my vase with a hole is reminiscent of Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture!

Here are my newly-fired pots. I’m very happy with the soda results and am most grateful to technicians Cheryl and Jay. The two round pots in the photo above have delicious orange peel or rich ‘Blair’s Red’ slip colour all over. Now I mustn’t forget to register next week to join another soda firing in the Fall.

Now I have some busy days ahead but I have already taken ‘professional’ photos of all the new pots, so will try to post a blog to show you them very soon. Meanwhile I shall try to get to JigSpace, a new-to-me gallery in Vancouver where five Taiwanese clay artists have a group show with four local clay people on until June 3rd. I attended their presentation at Shadbolt Centre last Saturday and must see their work in person!

Delivery Day!

Gillian McMillan — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 04:00:03 +0000

After spending the summer getting ourselves settled into our new townhouse, and enjoying a Vancouver Island holiday with family, I was delighted to start making pots again. The little downstairs bedroom now has a vinyl floor and houses my wheel, a work table and the slab roller and makes a fine studio.

Thanks to TriCity Potter Max Yang’s Coquitlam kiln I was able to bisque fire September’s group of earthenware pieces and my allowed 2 cu ft of stoneware pots for soda firing. With a little more time available I quickly made a couple of planters for my expanding jade plants and another round vase. I had such a good time figuring out a detailed carved design. My inspiration comes from the amazing hand-built pots of Wyandot artist Richard Zane Smith.

So when Max was firing my earthenware pieces to cone 05 for a glaze firing I snuck three more stoneware Umpqua clay pieces in for bisquing.

Above are some of the cheerful earthenware pieces that I’ll be taking in to Circle Craft shop on Granville Island tomorrow.

But last Tuesday was the day I’ve been waiting for all year. I had delivered my pots to the Vault kiln at Shadbolt Centre the previous Wednesday. Others had helped the technicians to load it and spray soda before the weekend and then it was just waiting time for kiln cooling. When I got there, on probably the last sunny Autumnal day, unloading was already under way. Below is a photo of the back shelves waiting to be carefully unloaded, and one of the goodies from the front shelves.

As usual, tech Cheryl Stapleton demonstrated the safe methods of cleaning the glassy shelves (using masks, eye protection and gloves of course) and we each took care of them, and applied kiln wash ready for the next Vault kiln firers.

Once all the pots have been passed down a line of us potters there’s a great time for looking at all of them. Hints, slips, glazes, clays are shared. We agreed that the firing was very good, giving us lots of colour, orange peel, surprizing glazes here and there and interesting pot designs. Now I’m on a long waiting list for a possible firing in the New Year.

Here are my pots, all toasty. Fellow potter Jen took this photo of me with two of my carved vases.

Now I have taken proper photos of all the pots and have priced and packed most of them, ready for our drive in to Granville Island tomorrow.

We also plan to pop in to the famous Western Front to join friends for a birthday tea party to celebrate the 90th birthday of our local Bernard Leach apprentice Glenn Lewis!

I like to make squared lidded jars like this. Richard Batterham made hundreds, but I choose to carve a design into the lid of mine.

In my next blog I’ll share proper photos of most of my new soda-fired pots. Dare I repeat my request for an invitation to join any, preferably reasonably local, salt firings? I’ll never be tired of making pots and then seeing how flames and salt or soda affect the surfaces.