Happy Soda retail Star Wall Art

I made this piece using a coarse stoneware clay. It was then underglazed and soda fired* to cone 10 with reduction.

With its earthy tones, so much texture, and overall great attitude, this piece just makes me smile.

The sculpted textures (vs surface texture) come from up-cycling my clay leftovers into new pieces The surface texture is a result of the combination of an underglazed clay surface and the soda fired* atmosphere in which they were fired.



*Soda firing involves introducing soda ash into the atmosphere of a kiln at just the right time, generally towards (or at) the end of a high-fire glaze firing.

At such hot textures, the soda volatilizes in the atmosphere of the kiln, and essentially turns into glass vapor that lands all over the place.

This can transform the surfaces of everything inside the kiln, including both the glaze and the clay itself.

This is where most of the glossy areas come from. The more soda that accumulates, the wetter it tends to look.

It's kind of like how misty rain lands -let's say on your car window- sometimes the smaller particles of water gather together and turn into bigger and heavier and droplets, until they drip and run away. It's like that, retail only with glass instead of water.

In some areas, it might not seem like there is much change at all, while in other areas, there may be a lot.

Where there is more of an accumulation, you can get anywhere from an ‘orange peel' texture, all the way to a full cascade of fluidly running glaze.


I really like this sort of planned unpredictability. You can control a lot of the parameters, but the flow of the fire generally has the final say.

In this way, only so much of the end result is up to me. Science and nature dictate the rest. This type of firing helps me keep every piece individually unique.