Soda Firing Bring Your Pots to Fire! and Making Lively Pots, Working Soft on the Wheel

In this workshop, we will bring cone 10 bisque ware to decorate, glaze, and load to fire the Bascom's soda kiln, plus we'll make pots too. Soda fired pots tend to be dramatic and brilliant; this workshop is a rare opportunity to experience and learn more about it. We'll cover practical and aesthetic aspects of soda firing including slip and glaze application, prep for and how to load and fire the kiln. During heating up and cooling the kiln, we will explore ways to make more dynamic pots. Working with freshly thrown clay, we'll alter surfaces and forms; squaring, ovaling, fluting, faceting, and improving foundational throwing techniques will be on offer. In learning to fully utilize the effects of flames carrying sodium through a kiln, we'll look at placement in the kiln as well as form and surface treatments, including slips and glazes, that are particularly responsive to the effects of soda firing. Experience throwing on the potters wheel is needed for this class. We’ll engage in lively conversations ranging over our interests, passions, technical questions, developing a personal aesthetic, raw glazing, single firing, firing.

About your instructor

Gay Smith, aka Gertrude Graham Smith, has been firing in soda kilns since 1993. She currently fires her porcelain ware in the soda kiln she built near Penland, NC. Artist-in-residencies include Archie Bray Foundation and Penland School. She’s taught at Penland, Haystack, Harvard, and abroad. Collections include the Mint Museum and Taiwan’s Yingge Museum. Grant awards include a NC Arts Council Visual Artist Fellowship and Regional Artist Project Grants. She’s served on the boards of Penland School and the NC Pottery Center.

Artist Talk 

Please join us for an artist talk September 4 | 4 - 5 pm | FREE