1. Dry Wood Supply

• The need for a good and dry wood supply can make or break the success of a firing.
• Do you have good wood storage to keep wood dry?
• Is your wood green? Have you allowed enough time for the wood to dry after a tree has been cut down?
• Is the wood to old? When that wood is rotting it has less value meaning it has fewer btu’s.

 
2. Properly Stacked Kiln Load

• What an ideal kiln load should be comes with trial and error experimentation. For example cross draft kilns quite often better success with tightly stacked bottoms versus down draft kilns do better with loosely stacked bottoms.
• In general, try to avoid a lot of kiln posts heights being shorter than 6inches when possible. The flame is searching for the easiest path, and might skip areas with shorter heights.
• Have you staggered the heights of the kiln shelves?
• Are you taking notes and pictures of your stacked kiln?

 
3. Good Stoking Patterns

• You have to learn to read your kiln.
• When does the kiln need more fuel? Looking for the flame disappearing from a spy, hearing the coal bed quiet down, or some other sign that indicates its time to add wood again.
• How much wood and how often do I put wood in? Know that there are usually different stoking patterns at various phases of the firing. For instance your going to burn fuel faster the hotter the kiln gets and will either put in bigger stokes of wood, or add wood more frequently.
• Do other parts of the kiln need to be adjusted with your stoking pattern such as an adjustment to primary air or damper settings?
• Are you keeping a kiln log?

 
4. Revisit Your Kiln Design

• If you have really problem solved the 3 earlier points you might need to revisit Frederick Olsen’s “The Kiln Book” to double check your kiln design. Do you have a big enough firebox? Do you need grates in your firebox? Do you have enough primary air? Is your kiln too tall? Do you need more side stokes if your kiln is too long? Is your damper tall enough?
• Even if all your math adds up correctly for the kiln design…maybe try a taller chimney or more or less primary air anyways. Be flexible and willing to adjust your kiln.

​
Ps. I read your emails. This article was written in response to one of my readers who is problem solving getting their wood kiln to temperature. If there are topics that you would like to learn about contact me.

This pottery tour includes 7 stops at 7 artists studios in the Galena area that are not always open to the public. Each of these studios invited guest artists like myself to be a part of the pottery tour. I will be at stop #3 at Pinder Pottery. Ps...it's right on the down town stretch. Grab some coffee down town and start your pottery tour with me;) 

​Ps. you will have have the first hand opportunity to buy work from my most recent wood firings and my newer electric fired pots.

Add this event to your calendar if you like pottery, and want a fun town to
explore while the leaves are changing color. 
Click the button below to find out more information about the
​2019 20 Dirty Hands Pottery Tour.

I wanted to share some of the reviews from my most recent soda firing workshop I taught at Community Arts Center in Wallingford, PA. This was a 5 day long workshop.

Feel free to reach out for more soda firing workshop opportunities in the future. My next workshop will be in Minot, North Dakota in October, and stay tuned for more opportunities to work with me in the future.

If you like soda firing, make sure that you are on my email list to stay up to date
​on my soda fire educational series. Click the button below to join.

Ps. I do read your messages, and thought I would answer this readers questions here on my blog so that all of you could learn from it too.
 
Question:
“I would like to hear your thoughts on wadding. For example, how many wads per pot, how large or small the wads should be, what shape they should be, where exactly on the foot should they be placed, etc?”

Typically I use 3 wads for everything. Exception 1: I have a 5-sided piece and I want to echo the pattern by placing a wad underneath each corner. Exception 2: the piece is wide…I then use more wads to support the piece.
 
Pea-sized wads are the size wad I use on almost everything. For heavy pieces they might be more like grape sized wads (mostly so they don’t get squished totally flat under the weight). But it’s also an aesthetic choice…you could use bigger wads or use a cookie cutter to make different shapes…I’m not interested in doing that for my work right now.
 
Wad placement should be under the “foot.” This is more obvious when you have a foot ring. When there is no foot ring think about where there is a change in direction from vertical to horizontal…ie where most of the pots weight would go on a counter top.
 
Question:
“I think wadding ties into my other area of curiosity--warping! I am focusing on making wide and low forms lately, like planters, and I am wondering the best way to wad them. Should they have an inner and outer ring of wadding? Is that overkill, or necessary to inhibit warping? Should I even be firing these wide low forms in a soda kiln if I am trying to avoid warping?”
 
Yes, wadding can contribute to the issue of warping. I recommend placing a wad about every 2-3 inches along the foot ring of really wide forms such as plates and platters. If wads are placed too far apart it can contribute to the problem of the ceramic piece warping. Another thing to consider is when stacking forms, such as plates, wads should be stacked in alignment with wad above wad. Think about loading a kiln. Posts need to line up one above the other to put less strain on the kiln shelves and carry the weight down through the posts to the floor of the kiln. There are many causes for warping that are not related to wad placement.
 
The way you make and dry a ceramic piece is usually the guiltiest culprit for warping and cracking. More compression and even drying in my opinion is the solution to most clay problems. Spend more time with a rib compressing a slab or bottom of a low wide pot. In general, you will have greater success having a shallow curve and foot ring for a bottom of a wide piece than adding a second inner foot ring. Warping could also be related to needing to leave that bottom a little bit thicker. In addition, a piece may have started to warp because of uneven  drying depending on the piece this may not become apparent until the final firing.
 
Another solution is addressing the clay body. Certain clays will warp like crazy when fired slightly above cone 10. Adding a grog could also strengthen the clay and reduce its chance of warping. So you may need to look for a different clay body to use that’s better for low wide forms.
 
All forms are more at risk of failing in a soda kiln over an electric kiln. Don’t be discourage…I fire lots of low wide forms in the soda kiln. To Sum it up it’s a matter of problem solving the combination of these elements: better shape, compression, even drying, clay body, and wad placement.
 
Please keep sharing questions you might have about soda firing. If I can't answer your question I'm sure I can find an artist to interview to answer the question for both of us. Plus it might be a topic in my soda firing educational series just waiting its turn to be release.

About Marcus: Ceramic artist, potter, and teacher.

Do you collect handmade pottery?
 "I have 50 pieces ranging from Song Dynasty celadons to contemporary artists, former teachers, colleagues, and friends."
 
Why do you buy handmade pottery?
"Buying handmade pottery is the beginning of a relationship with the maker. The design, technique, and execution of the artist’s concept is a window into the personality and soul. The more I use a piece, the more it speaks to me, and the wider the variety of pots from an artist, the broader picture of their tastes, sensibilities, and impressions of their world.  I have pieces that I’ve owned for 20 years and I still learn something new from them. The handmade pots I own of a more historic nature ground me in a sense of ancient traditions, and give me a feeling of being connected to a ceramic genealogy that is very important to me, and from both I draw a great amount of inspiration and insight."
 
How did you acquire a Lisa York piece of pottery?
"I walked up to Lisa at a Hood College faculty show and said 'Lisa I have GOT to have this mug!'"