New Soda Kiln and other equipment

The Need

Northern Clay Center's kilns, including the soda kiln, are cornerstones of our studio and teaching program.  

Soda Kiln: Years of heavy use have compromised its structural integrity, and it is now at risk of collapse. We are raising funds to replace it with a new kiln built on site to our specifications.

Soda firing gives artists something no other technique can: surfaces marked by depth, color, and flashing that emerge unpredictably from the fire itself, shaped by exactly where a piece sits in the kiln. It draws serious ceramic artists to Northern Clay Center specifically, students who want to learn it, residents who want to make a practice of it, and it has anchored some of our most accomplished artists' work for years. Losing reliable access to this kiln means losing the ability to offer that experience at all.

A soda kiln is standard equipment at a serious ceramics education center. Soda and salt kilns are part of the standard equipment lineup at university ceramics programs and residency-based studios nationally, because atmospheric firing is a core technique students and resident artists expect access to. As a national-caliber ceramic arts center with an artist-in-residence program, Northern Clay Center is expected to offer this alongside our electric and reduction gas kilns. Replacing it keeps us at parity with peer institutions and preserves our standing among artists choosing where to study and work.

What Soda Firing Is

Soda firing is an atmospheric technique. Near the end of a firing, soda ash dissolved in water is introduced into the kiln at peak temperature. It vaporizes and travels through the chamber with the flame, reacting with the silica in the clay to form a glaze directly on the surface of the work. The result depends on where a piece sits in the kiln and how the flame reaches it, so no two firings, and often no two pots, come out the same. It is a technique many ceramic artists specifically seek out, and one that requires this kind of specialized kiln to teach or practice.

Our History with This Kiln

Soda firing has been part of Northern Clay Center's teaching and studio program for years. We currently offer both Introduction to Soda Firing and Advanced Soda Firing as standing classes, and this year added a Soda Firing Add-On taught by teaching artist Chris Singewald for students continuing their study of the technique.

Resident and fellowship artists have built their practice around this kiln. Casey Beck began soda firing at NCC in 2019 and went on to receive the 2020 Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant, awarded through NCC and the Jerome Foundation, to research soda-firing technique. Clarice Allgood, the 2020 Fogelberg Fellow, has credited the soda kiln as central to her work. Studio artist Carolina Niebres fires all of her work in it.

The New Soda Kiln

We have a quote from Master Kiln Builders Inc. of Farmington, Minnesota, to build a new downdraft soda kiln on site: a 31.5" x 40.5" setting area holding 3–12" x 24" shelves, approximately 54" tall from car floor to arch, and approximately 36 cubic feet — sized to our current program volume. It is rated to fire to cone 10–12 (2,350°F) and built to current UL, NFPA, and AGA safety and electrical standards.

What Your Gift Builds

A gift toward this replacement funds the chamber, burner system, and shelving our current kiln can no longer deliver, and keeps soda firing available to every class, resident, and visiting artist who comes to Northern Clay Center to do this kind of work. Donors of $10000 and more will be recognized by naming the new soda kiln in honor of the donor or family who makes it possible.

The soda kiln has reached the end of its life, and our other kilns have ongoing maintenance and replacement needs.  

Other Equipment Needs

NCC students and studio artists use our equipment heavily and we have ongoing maintenance and replacement costs.  You can make a donation to fill this fund!