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During my 8-month residency at the Red Lodge Clay Center I took a little break from firing with wood, and instead dove deeply into the process of soda firing. I experimented with designing clay bodies that would react in beautiful and interesting ways with the soda process. I combined my experience with reduction-cooling wood kilns with the new soda firing process to see where the Venn diagram of the two processes overlap in their resulting effects on the work.

If you'd like to read my full residency project proposal click here.

I found that within the soda firing process, there is enormous potential for complex and beautiful surfaces and effects. Much more than I had originally anticipated. I discovered that the elusive redux-cool cherry red is indeed achievable in a gas/soda firing. I discovered that soda firings can be a pretty brutal process when done on your own. I chronicled my firings in a series of blog posts that I hope will be useful to anyone who is curious about giving soda firing a go!

Anyway, here are some galleries from my time at the RLCC. Cheers & enjoy!

Pitcher, soda-fired & reduction-cooled stoneware, 8" x 5" x 2.5", 2020