Upcoming Community Soda Firings
We aim to hold monthly community soda firings in our dedicated gas reduction soda kiln. There are opportunities to engage with the loading and firing process, but these firings are not part of a course or a participatory workshop – you can drop your work off to be fired by our soda kiln crew, then pick up your work. We do invite people to come to the unload.
Updates:
October: Soda Firing lead by Heather Hitt & Joe Lyons
November: Soda Firing lead by Zoe Petersen
Updates:
- Let us know if you are interested in joining the Soda Crew! We are looking for a few more people to participate in the loading process.
- As the kiln continues to have such a wide spread of temperatures from one side of the shelf to the other, we are going to split the firing temperatures. Most of the kiln will be filled with Cone 10 work, and the areas that tend to always be cooler will be filled with Cone 6 work. Some of the cool areas do still get significant soda, they just do not get hot. We will be selling space by temperature zone so you will select what temperature spot you will fill when you check out.
- This does mean we will not be accepting any SMY, Oregon Red, B-Mix with Speckles, or other Cone 6 clay bodies that are known to bloat or melt at cone 6.
- If you are using Oregon White, then you should count that as Cone 10, not Cone 6.
October: Soda Firing lead by Heather Hitt & Joe Lyons
- Deadline to bisque at Burnish: Work must be dry and on the greenware shelf by Friday 10/4
- Deadline to deliver finished/glazed work: Tuesday 10/8
- Loading: Thursday 10/10
- Firing: Friday 10/11
- Unloading: Monday 10/14
November: Soda Firing lead by Zoe Petersen
- Deadline to bisque at Burnish: Work must be dry and on the greenware shelf by Saturday 11/2
- Deadline to deliver finished/glazed work: Wednesday 11/6
- Loading: Friday 11/8
- Firing: Saturday 11/9
- Unloading: Tuesday 11/12
Clays
Any clay of the appropriate cone can be fired in the soda kiln, but not all clays will provide good results.
We recommend the following Clay Art Center Tacoma clays in our kiln. The ones we typically have available to purchase in the studio are marked with an *.
Other clays can be ordered for you, typical lead time is 6-8 weeks - although if you are making work at Burnish keep in mind that red clay bodies cannot be used in the studio due to the way they stain everything it touches red, but we will fire red clay pieces made elsewhere.
Cone 6:
Clays to be cautious about:
Cone 10:
We recommend the following Clay Art Center Tacoma clays in our kiln. The ones we typically have available to purchase in the studio are marked with an *.
Other clays can be ordered for you, typical lead time is 6-8 weeks - although if you are making work at Burnish keep in mind that red clay bodies cannot be used in the studio due to the way they stain everything it touches red, but we will fire red clay pieces made elsewhere.
Cone 6:
- Porcelains: Grolleg* or Rainier
- Stoneware: Oregon White*, WMP*, or Naranja
- Sculptural: Akio* or Littlejohn
Clays to be cautious about:
- Red clays like CAC’s Oregon Brown and Oregon Red can look beautiful in our kiln, but risk bloating or melting and can only go in cool zones, which limits the amount of work made from this clay we can accept per firing. Use these at your own risk.
- Cone 5 black clays, such as Aardvark’s Obsidian or CAC’s Plum Black, will melt in reduction and can destroy others’ work in the kiln. (Cone 10 black clays such as Aardvark’s Black Mountain do fine.)
- Porcelains such as New Zealand C6, Silver Falls, NZ6, Frost, MAC6, OH6, or JG6 without flashing slip.
Cone 10:
- Porcelains: Welmer*, White Rose, Takamori*, English Grolleg C10, B-Mix C10, Helmer WF
- Stoneware: Oregon White*, OH Woodfire*, Dakota White*, Dakota Yellow*, or DRSM
- Sculptural: Littlejohn, Bedrock, Coleman Raku w/Grog* (the Coleman can also be used for throwing)
Glazes
- although glazed pieces in soda can be beautiful, you do not have to glaze work for the soda kiln when using an appropriate clay (see above) - the soda and effects of the kiln will make beautiful surfaces on the raw clay. The exception is things like cups and vases that are more vertical in shape do need a liner glaze on the interior to ensure it is water tight.
- All of Burnish’s standard cone 6 glazes can go up to cone 10 and look beautiful in the soda kiln. Glazes that work particularly well in the soda kiln are the studio’s Yellow Salt, Tenmoku, and New Blanc. We also have a few cone 10 specific glazes including Spotted and Red shinos.
- We also have a few studio glazes we do not recommend for use in soda. These glazes CAN be beautiful, but we have had a very high rate of issues with these glaze that make the pieces unusable. This includes the Rain Sea Green, Studio C6 Shino, and Nan's Clear.
- A flashing slip is a slip designed to create a beautiful surface specifically in the soda kiln, and can be applied to clays that otherwise might not have much reaction in the soda kiln. We stock three in the studio: A red-orange Helmer, a titanium yellow, and an iridescent rutile, all of which can go from cone 6 – 10. These can be applied to either leather hard clay or to bisque ware.
Shapes
Make a variety of shapes within the pots you bring – we need a variety of shapes and heights of work to have an effective kiln load. Please vary sizes and shapes of mugs, bowls, and handles.
- If you exclusively bring one size and shape of pot, we cannot guarantee that all of your work will make it into the kiln. Consider the loading process when selecting sizes and shapes to make.
- There is no minimum dimension, other than no small beads - but it is a maximum of 10 pieces under 1x1x1 inches per person per firing. They do not take much space, but they take a ton of time to wad and load.
- Keep in mind that flat pieces like tiles and plates, especially THIN & flat pieces are more likely to warp.
- Bowls/Plates/flat things shorter than 3 inches and wider than 4 inches must not be glazed.
- Pieces must be under 14 inches tall and no more than 14 inches wide. Some exceptions can be made, but must be approved in advance by emailing [email protected].
Drop off process
- Please bring your bisqued work during studio retail hours (Tues-Sat Noon-6) and check in with a studio employee. There is no longer an option for unassisted drop off - every participant must check in with a studio employee, not including studio monitors.
- No Sunday drop off, pieces must be delivered by the Saturday before loading so that we have a day to find more work if we do not receive enough pieces to fill the kiln.
- Utilize the Measuring Cube to measure the work delivered (do this before glazing if you are using the studio glazes to ensure you do not damage the glaze while you are stacking work in the Cube)
- Fill out the label with your name, contact information, amount of cubic feet you purchased, how much you delivered, and the clay bodies you used. If you used your own glazes, please note which ones.
- Tape the label to the front of your ware board so it is visible hanging down from the shelf.
- If you do not label your work and we have questions, we may not include it in the firing.
Expectations
You do not need to have any experience with soda or have been working with clay long to participate in a soda firing at Burnish. Because this is a community firing, the work you deliver will affect the results of everyone’s work in the kiln.
Participants are expected to:
Participants are expected to:
- Bring the full amount of work that they purchased. Bringing fewer pots can impact the firing results negatively, so we ask that if you do not expect to fill the space you purchased, please notify us at the latest two weeks before the firing. Refunds or deferred firings will not be provided for less than 2 weeks notice.
- Appropriately label work when dropping off, with the label including your name, a contact # (that we can use during the loading day if there are questions/issues), the volume of work delivered AND the volume of work purchased, and the clay bodies you used.
- Please do not bring:
- Many tiny pieces smaller than 1 x 1 x 1 inches, like handfuls of beads, pendants, or other small items.
- Pieces over 14 inches tall or over 14 inches wide.
- Glazed bowls/plates/flat things under 3 inches tall and wider than 4 inches.
Purchase space in soda kiln
Purchasing space is first come, first serve.
- We try to post the firings a minimum of 60-days in advance of each firing.
- Space in the soda kiln is not included in the Glaze & Firing Fees that students and members pay with their clay purchase.
- Click the Shop button below to purchase space in an upcoming soda firing.
- If you want to be notified when future firings are scheduled, then please join the Soda Firing Mailing List below.
- Within one week of purchasing space in a soda firing, you will receive an email with many details including 2 PDFs that go into great detail about making work for soda, and glazing work for soda.
Soda Firing
$35.00
Sold out
Update: We are selling both cone 6 and cone 10 space in each firing. Please select the specific temperature zone for the clay you plan to use from the drop down list.
Space in the kiln is sold in 1/2 cubic foot (cu ft) increments. Scroll to the bottom of the page for examples and more details on calculating volume.
- If you want 1/2 cu ft then purchase quantity: 1
- If you want 1 cu ft purchase quantity: 2
- Each person can only purchase a maximum of 1 cubic foot (quantity: 2)
- If any space is still available 30-days prior to the loading date, then participants may purchase additional space.
- Space in the kiln is fully paid with this transaction.
- No refund is provided if you do not bring enough pieces to fill the space you purchased.
- You may cancel all or a portion of your space up to 2 weeks prior to the drop off deadline for a full refund, minus a 6% processing fee. No refunds or deferrals are provided less than 14 days prior to the drop off deadline.
Qty 1 = 0.5 cubic foot. (6 x 12 x 12)
Qty 2 = 1 cubic foot (12 x 12 x 12)
Soda Firing Mailing List
If you would like to be notified when additional community soda firings are added, please complete the below form to join the soda specific mailing list.
- If you have ever submitted a request for space in the soda kiln in the past you do not need to fill this out again - you are already on the list.
- Filling out this form does not guarantee you space in any future firing, it will just ensure you are notified when space is available to purchase. You must then come back to this website to purchase space in the kiln.
- Emails will come from [email protected] or [email protected] and will most likely end up in your junk mail box unless you add that email to your address book, especially if you use Gmail.
What is SODA FIRING?
Soda firing is a process in which sodium carbonate (soda ash) and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is introduced into the kiln at or near the peak temperature of the firing through a variety of methods. At Burnish, we use what is known as the Burrito method. We mix the 2 types of soda with an equal volume of Whiting and then add water.
The Whiting forms a type of plaster that dries fairly quickly into chunks. These chunks get rolled up in newspaper like a burrito, and then these burritos get deposited into the fire box by the burners through ports on the side of the kiln. The Whiting acts almost like a time release for the soda, as the heat breaks down the plaster chunks to release the soda.
When the soda is introduced, the intense heat vaporizes the soda and it travels through the kiln with the path of the flame. The interaction between the alumina, silica, atmosphere of the kiln, and amount of soda built up creates a variety of colors, textures, and surfaces - which are affected by the arrangement of the work in the kiln during loading and the placement of pots next to one another.
To find out more about soda firing, here are some great external resources:
Websites:
* Casey Beck’s site: https://www.beckpots.com/process
* Harry Levenstein’s site: https://www.harrylevensteinpottery.com/whatissodafiring.html
Books:
* Gail Nichols: Soda, Clay, and Fire
* Lindsey Oesterritter: Mastering Kilns and Firing: Raku, Pit and Barrel, Wood Firing, and More
The Whiting forms a type of plaster that dries fairly quickly into chunks. These chunks get rolled up in newspaper like a burrito, and then these burritos get deposited into the fire box by the burners through ports on the side of the kiln. The Whiting acts almost like a time release for the soda, as the heat breaks down the plaster chunks to release the soda.
When the soda is introduced, the intense heat vaporizes the soda and it travels through the kiln with the path of the flame. The interaction between the alumina, silica, atmosphere of the kiln, and amount of soda built up creates a variety of colors, textures, and surfaces - which are affected by the arrangement of the work in the kiln during loading and the placement of pots next to one another.
To find out more about soda firing, here are some great external resources:
Websites:
* Casey Beck’s site: https://www.beckpots.com/process
* Harry Levenstein’s site: https://www.harrylevensteinpottery.com/whatissodafiring.html
Books:
* Gail Nichols: Soda, Clay, and Fire
* Lindsey Oesterritter: Mastering Kilns and Firing: Raku, Pit and Barrel, Wood Firing, and More