Upwey Potters Soda Firing Number 17

November 2002

The Upwey Potters are a group of ceramic artists who live & work in Upwey, Dorset, England, making and selling their work and running Workshops.

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This page gives images of pots from the 17th soda kiln firing, together with brief explanations of the variations in colours due to the different atmospheres within the kiln.

Bill Crumbleholme was chief stoker, the bulk of the pots were his "Owls", see the Owls page for an explanation of these. In addition some pots were by members of the Dorset Pottery Group and Bill's Evening Class, follow links to see about them.

The firing was fairly heavily reduced, that is the gas was burnt slightly starved of air, so the flames extracted oxygen from the clay body - turning it darker in places where the iron content of the clay bleeds through.
The owls were glazed internally and over the lip and shoulder with a variety of stoneware glazes, these behave differently than when in a normal electric kiln firing because of the soda acting as a flux on the glaze, which melts it more and also the reduction causing the iron in the clay to come through more.
Some of the glazes have a high alumina content and are less prone to attack by the soda.

 


The Kiln just opened. The Temperature measuring cones can be clearly seen in the middle, the No.8 on the right is fully bent over, the No.9 on the left is just beginning to go, this shows the kiln did not quite reach a high enough temperature at that position, although that is a cooler spot.

A close up of the inside of the kiln, showing how close the pots are packed, but with enough space above to allow the soda vapour to circulate.

 

A step back, with the shelf removed.
Note the tall pot at the right is more reduced on the side facing the inside of the kiln, the other side is more oxidised by the flame coming up the side wall. See below for a couple more images of this pot.
The owl on the left with the white top shows more soda on the flame side, a patch of reduction then an area of sparce soda action.
The pots in the middle tend to be more evenly coated, without the strong patches.

 
Two pots for the price of one - the front and back of an owl, showing differences in tone caused by the variation in soda. This pot was right at the top back of the firing chamber and got a good overall reduction.
Another fore and aft shot of an owl, this one got a blast of soda on one side.
The light oatmeal glaze internally and on the lip has been very pleasantly toasted by the combination of fairly heavy reduction and the affect of the soda.

One from the bottom shelf, with plenty of soda but a slightly lower temperature
   

 

The tall vase showing distinct regions of reduction, oxidation and soda action. See above for image of the position in the kiln.

 

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