Well, it's been an amazing summer. Because of my injured hip we decided to add a first floor bedroom wing and that, the garden and pottery have been plenty to keep me busy.
I started a soda salt firing group on Yahoo for other soda/salt firers or anyone interested in vapor firing. The URL is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sodasaltfiring


You have to be approved to participate and that is only to avoid spammers.

I just fired my kiln Friday and will be unloading tonight or tomorrow morning. Our dog Shanti has been fighting a massive eye infection due to an abcessed tooth and we need to get him to the vet again late this afternoon so he can have that tooth extracted tomorrow morning, so the kiln may have to wait until tomorrow to be unloaded.

I tried a new technique in this firing, using some salt along with the soda and a few ounces of borax, because my usual method of spraying the water/soda solution was not an option right now with all the hip pain I'm experiencing. So instead, I made a paste of the mixture and spread it on pieces of scrap wood and introduced them into the firebox.

From my peek into the kiln this morning, it appears that that was too much salt. Some of the pots are way too dark - sort of sewer tile brown - not what I would have expected on a white stoneware! It also looks like the area under some of the lids is lighter color, which is definitely not going to work. I'm assuming the salt did not hit there and those are going to be strange looking pots! At this point I'm wondering if firing them in the electric kiln at a bisque temperature might help brighten them, or if they will be a total loss.

I'll try to get some pictures taken of some of these pots and post them on the yahoo group and maybe here as well if I get the time.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!