You ever start something, and get really into it and realize you have much more than you anticipated? That’s what happened with this post. I started to post a quick bit of info about the Suburban Soda kiln, but it’s a pretty ugly looking cube of bricks… really ugly. So I thought I’d draw some “pretty” sketches of it (I always loved Troy’s book with the sketches of the kilns). As I drew those, it got me thinking why I built this kiln and why other’s might want to build it. I built it because I needed something that would help me fill in the gaps between firings in the big woody. Something I could turn around some custom orders quickly in, and maybe get so better flashing results than the down draft wood gives. But the reasons other’s might want to build it is because it’s super easy to build. Can be built with scrap bricks (and no arches). And can give all the different type of soda effects a potter could want in small easy to load firings. Definitely not a kiln for a production potter, but excellent for a student or someone wanting to experiment. And it got me thinking, dang, I wish this was my first kiln.
So that all turned into the following posts, which I split into two parts. Part one: The Why… Part two: the what (basically plans and shots and drawings of the ugliest kiln you ever saw.
Disclaimer… the kiln you see in the photos is basically a prototype, in an ideal world, the kiln would be just like the plans lol! It was made from scrap bricks, old kiln shelves and left over burners from the old soda kiln. I build it for less than $200, but don’t be fooled, the average person will not have all the left overs I did. Anyways… on with part one…. the part where I try to sound like I know what I am talking about…
Why the The Suburban Soda Kiln?
It’s easy to get seduced by soda fired pots. Your checking out some pots in a gallery and one has an amazing gorgeous and organic look and feel, you look at the byline… “Soda fired”…nice… and you come across another, oh it’s “soda fired” too. And on and on until you get that mmmmmmm…soda… feeling. Soda firing can be the yin to wood firing’s yang. Not polar opposites, but to me soda has a very female quality to it, subtle, seductive, sexy. Strickly wood fired pots typically strike me as masculine - male, both in process and aesthetic… [it's not always true but that phrasing kinda makes me chuckle in a adolescent way].
Anyways for some of us, we get this idea in our heads, “I think I need to start firing with soda”…mmmmm…. soda…
Is that you?
Hold up and check yourself right now.
There are different flavors to soda glazed pots as there are different pots in electric firing, and before you go any further, figure out which flavor you are particular to. I mean to say something is electric fired is not really giving me the full scoop, there is a huge difference between low fire electric, Cone 6 electric, Hi fire, Crystalline firing, and on and on…The beauty is that you can get all that and more from one kiln. That’s not the case with soda firing. Different kilns favor different flavors… you may build yourself a downdraft soda kiln, and realize the flavor you want is best produced from a cross draft (I suppose I did this).
John Britt says something in his book along the lines of “some people think they are going to be able to get copper reds, carbon trap shino, oil spot and matte glazes all from one firing schedule and then are dissappointed when none of them come out as expected because the firing conditions are compromised”. (I really should look up the exact quote, cause he says it way better than I paraphrased). I think the same can be said of kiln designs as well.
I sometimes wish they’d list the kiln design in the bylines of photos of pots .
- Sprayed Soda in a Downdraft.
- Dumped Soda in a Cross Draft.
- Sprayed and dumped.
- Sprayed in a converted electric up draft.
- On and on…
We get so hung up in our quest to build a kiln… what bricks do I use - softies or all hard - castable? What can I afford? How big? Gas or Wood? That we tend to over look the actual “draft design” in favor of economic, size and fuel consideration.
So what are the soda flavors? these may not be “industry approved” terms, but I’ll let you know what I see when I look at soda fired pots…
- Straight Up Soda Glazed Characteristics are: the pot is even glazed with soda, and pretty much only soda over clay. Edges may have heavier build up that flats, but over all the pot has nice even coating of soda. To me Ruthanne Tudball’s pots tend to characterize this most. The pot’s coating can be any slip (colored or not), bare clay and possibly some brushwork. To get the even coating, spraying soda is probably preferred from multiple angles of attack and spraying ports to get even coverage of soda. Kiln: downdraft, crossdraft, updraft (the last is least desirable).
This garlic dish could be viewed as a typical soda glazed pot. Bauer orange flashing slip over stoneware. Soda was sprayed in a downdraft kiln. No dry spots.
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Soda Flashing Characteristics are: the pot is heavy sided with soda glaze and build up, and there’s a shadow side (possibly a dry side) and variations in between. I’d say Gail Nichols, Emily Murphy, Joy Tanner, etc. most characterize this surface. Typically soda is dumped in the firebox so that the vapors can follow the natural draft pattern in the kiln (spraying affects draft). The pot coating is typically slip/clay and maybe some glaze, but really the key is a coating that is going to accentuate the variation in soda build up. The ideal kiln would probably be cross draft, but downdraft can work with enough burners (and hopefully blowers).
This bowl shows heavy soda build up on the left with minimal on the right due to the directional draft. Fired in a cross draft with bauer flashing slip over stoneware and soda was “dumped” in front of burners… ala Gail Nichols/Emily Murphy method.
- Soda + Glaze Characteristics are: the soda deposits are intended to give variation to a glaze on the pot. Although not strictly glazed, Mark Knott’s work comes to mind here. Although all glazes change when soda is introduced , some glazes that react better with soda vapors - oribes (or copper rich glazes); shinos and some iron oxide glazes as well; matte glazes. Dumping + spraying all work and soda build up is lighter rather than heavy. Crossdraft/Downdraft, it’s all good depending on how much and how much variation you want.
Oribe glaze over porcelain, fired in cross draft with soda dumped (light soda build up).
So… Why do I wish I had built the Suburban Soda Kiln first?
The first kiln I built, as some of you long time readers know, is the “Jack Doherty Kiln” plan in Tudball’s book built Nov 2007. The building, firing, trials, tribulations, and destruction have all been covered in this blog (start reading here and work your way forward). It’s worth it to go through it chronologically. I chose that kiln because:
- It was gas fired… My first reduction kiln, I wanted to learn about firing schedules along with soda.
- I thought it’d be cheap - homemade castable, that sounds cheap right?
- It was small enough to learn from firing to firing, but big enough to hold a fair amount of pots.
- It looked cute and pretty and easy to build.
I don’t recomment this kiln as a ‘first kiln’ because…
- It’s not the easiest to build
- It’s not really cheap to build and sure as hell wasn’t cheap to fire.
- It was not great at giving me the flavor of soda firing I wanted.
- Kilns do not have to be pretty.
It, however, was a huge learning experience and I don’t regret building it at all.
A Combination of Designs…
The suburban soda kiln is basically a cross between Nils Lous’ Minnesota Flat Top (MFT as described in his book “The art of firing”), and a Train Kiln, but small enough to pass an ugly mother fucking BBQ in the back yard of a suburban potter’s home.
Now there are a lot of beautiful kilns out there. The suburban soda kiln is NOT one of them. In fact, my first reaction to the MFT was, wow… that is one ugly kiln, but over time, I guess it gives you “permission” to design an ugly kiln. The beauty is in the ease and simplicity… I suppose… pretty kilns sure are pretty though…. The main difference between the MFT and the Suburban is the draft… the MFT is down draft, the Suburban is cross draft.
Another ugly kiln? I’d say a train kiln is not sexy looking - it’s not gonna win any architecture awards, but it is cross draft and fires very well. I first saw a train kiln in Kyle Houser’s blog and looks like they may be firing again shortly (Good luck Kyle and Nancy!). John Neely designed the train kiln and it gives very similar effects as an anagama (now that’s a sexy kiln).
So why do I think cross draft is better for your first soda kiln? Because you can get any of the flavors I mentioned above with it. Although it favors the “flashing flavor”, it will do well with any of them depending on how you introduce the soda.
Wait… are you making a sales pitch here or what?
No… you should know by now I am pretty free with ideas. I am trying to make a point to help save you some time and money that’s all. That and I do wish I’d build this kiln first.
Part two will have all the juicy bits you want, pictures and plans… will be posted tomorrow…
