Salt & Soda

My Salt and Soda fired work is fired at Hautere kiln, a diesel fired kiln on Lavender Creek Farm in Te Horo as past of the mirek Smisek Trust. My work is also exhibited at the Mirek Smisek kilns site, as I am part of a small group of potters who both built and fire in this kiln. 

Work fired in this style uses minimal glaze, and is naturally glazed through the kiln environment, the salt, the soda, ash we dust our work with, and clay slips we prepare our pieces with.  It takes about 8 hours to fire, 4 hours to load, and 4 or 5 hours or so to unload, so pretty much a 3 full day process. We work with the kiln throughout the firing, adjusting, tweaking, increasing the temperature, slowing it down. It’s a big job, but so much fun. And seeing our pots when we unload – it’s like Christmas every time.