summer’s end soda firing

Here I am at the passing of the equinox, surprised at just how quickly summer has gone. It’s a little bit cliché. And I am not a person who fetishizes busy-ness. In fact, I hate rushing. Slowing down has always felt like my natural state. So it’s hard to say what has the time passing so quickly, but I have carried on exploring my glaze and clay combinations longer than intended. There have a been a few bumps: I adopted a new local stoneware, only to learn that it will be discontinued as the clay deposits in the mine have dwindled. And I am still tinkering with a good liner-glaze that will not craze on my current clay body.

However, this month I took a small detour and did a soda firing workshop at Cobb Mountain. I brought simple, functional forms, avoiding preciousness because I mainly wanted to stress-test my materials. I’ll need some time to metabolize the results. The pots feel foreign to me and I don’t yet recognize what’s “mine” in the process. But I learned a ton and I got some fun results that may be interesting to explore further.

Because of my painting background, I have always chosen to midfire in oxidation, as I usually had very specific intentions for what comes out of the kiln. I felt many artists fetishized high-fire work, and relied too heavily on the surprise of atmospheric firings to manufacture what is interesting about their work without much intent. But as I learn more, I am appreciating risk more—the injection of surprise more. Is there something here for me? I still believe in a real distinction between randomness and improvisation. I’ll need to take a beat to reflect on what feels most relevant from the experience of firing this way.