Vase: Mishima Soda Numbered

This was the first piece of this new series combining my watercolors and my sculptural vessels. These mishima pieces are created by carving in a line design when the piece is leather hard, working a copper stain into the lines after bisque and painting glaze combinations into the shapes.  They are a tedious delight.  I chose to incorporate numbers into the design to make it easier to track different glaze combinations.  I like leaving marks of the process in my work.

Each soda fired piece is one-of-a-kind as atmospheric firings are unpredictable and can yield stunning results.  Soda firing takes an enormous amount of time, energy, labor and resources and is usually a community effort.  In the soda firing process, soda ash (sodium carbonate) is added to the kiln at cone 9 (2300°) and the sodium vapor combines with silica in clay to form sodium-silicate glaze.  The sodium vapor also interacts with the slips and glazes to create amazing, unpredictable results that shift around the piece.