Samantha Hostert is a ceramic artist and educator based in the Chicago area. She creates functional, comfortable pottery designed to encourage people to slow down and enjoy the rituals and conversations of everyday life. Her surfaces draw inspiration from natural landscapes and the balance between order and organic movement. Hostert throws every pot on the wheel and builds depth through carved linework, inlaid underglaze, terra sigillata, and glaze. Each piece is soda fired, a process in which vaporized sodium moves through the kiln and interacts with the clay surface, creating unique variations in color and texture. No two works finish the same, and each one carries its own character, meant to be noticed and enjoyed. A lifelong lover of the outdoors, Hostert traces her connection to nature back to a formative five-week trek in the Bitterroot Mountains at age sixteen. When she is not in the studio, she enjoys time with her two children and spends as many moments as she can exploring the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Technical Statement Sam’s work is fired in a soda kiln, where atmospheric conditions play a central role in shaping surface and glaze. During firing, a mixture of baking soda, wood chips, and water is rolled into newspaper bundles (referred to as soda “burritos”) which are introduced into the kiln at high temperature. When the kiln reaches cone 8–9 (approximately 2300°F), bricks are temporarily removed and the soda burritos are inserted into designated ports on each side of the kiln using an angle iron. The bundles are deposited into the firebox, away from the stacked work and directly in the path of the flame. At temperatures above 2000°F, sodium becomes volatile and immediately vaporizes, entering the kiln atmosphere. As it travels with the flame, the sodium interacts with the clay and slips on the surface of the work, forming a natural soda glaze. The resulting surfaces are shaped by heat, flame path, and chance, producing nuanced variations that reflect the dynamic conditions of the firing.