Pottery - well, it's Friday night isn't it?

Friday night firing pots in an old steel bin (no longer anodized) listening to my two favorite types of music, country and western. The contraption in the picture looks more complicated than it needs to. The logs stacked stockade-like around the barrel are just logs I’m drying before stacking in the garage for the winter and same goes for the tree bark on the top. 

The creative firing action takes place inside the barrel. The barrel has holes near the bottom through which air gets in to feed the fire. The brick on the chimney governs the flow of exiting smoke and for all intents and purposes sets the pace of the burn.

The pots are sitting on about three inches of sawdust containing a secret mix of colorants. Pine needles and sawdust surround the pots also. The pots are also wrapped in metal wire chosen for its potential to create shapes on the pots as the fire reaches them. As the fire reaches and burns below the pots it releases hot gases which condense unpredictably on the pots and deposit (hopefully) their contents in attractive ways.

 We’re beginning to achieve some attractive results but still learning what works and what doesn’t. The picture below left shows the firing contraption described above. The other picture shows the three pots to be fired wrapped in wire and supported by long pine needles before the sawdust is added.