#pit firing

I plan on doing the horse hair technique soon on a vase for my dog’s grave, and using her hair instead of horse hair.

I personally hate the texture of raku, and I prefer to stick with low-fire or mid-fire glazes, depending on what clay and studio I’m working with :D

I have done two raku workshops, both quite early on in my time as a potter. my first and second years, I think. so the things I made aren’t as uh…polished, as I’d like lol

I both really enjoyed raku firing and was a little terrified of it. I have a few burn scars from my time as a baker and a dumbass, so opening the glowing hot kiln and setting things on fire, even with gloves and metal tongs and such, made me a little nervous. (but I’m a baby lol)

despite it being somewhat terrifying, I’d like to do a raku firing again.

and I’d love to try a pit firing, but I think my landlady might not like me digging up the yard so…it’ll have to wait until I can join someone else’s pit firing

I agree with you about the texture of the horsehair raku! it’s more similar to bisqueware and I don’t like touching it. but it’s not food safe, so at least it isn’t handled all that often.

I don’t mind the feeling of the metallic or crackle raku though, it’s somewhat smoother.

here’s some of my raku work. (I finally found the pictures I took during the firing. I’d thought they were gone forever!)

here’s a couple metallic pieces

some crackle pieces (they’re a bit clunky lol)

and this one is similar to the horsehair, but made with feathers instead.

I think I used pheasant feathers. this bowl cracked, unfortunately. the horsehair or feather raku can be especially prone to thermal shock, since they aren’t immediately placed in a sealed container full of flammable stuff after being pulled from the hot kiln

and here’s the horsehair raku

these pictures are from just after adding the horsehair, you can see the burnt hair all around it

and these were taken today

I used horsehair from this beautiful moose of a horse, Jehna.

the sculpture was made to remember her time with us.

I think this kind of raku is a perfect art form for pet memorial pieces

Handbuilt porcelain, pit fired. Acrylic paint, bailing wire, and fabric accents added post-fire.

This mask is a part of a (loosely connected) mask series, all hand-built and fired using a range of different temperatures and techniques.

Eggs Benedict himself! Based on my own design for Michael post-scoop, which I haven't drawn nearly as much as I should.

I'm very pleased with how gross it looks, I think my blending of colours to make a more varied and sinew-y-er looking purple paid off well (particularly the hints of green). The variations between glossy and matte in areas worked well too, I think, and I'm really happy with how the wire turned out!

WIP stuff under the cut!

salt adds a red-brown color to pieces! I've also heard that some oxides can get more interesting colors like greens or blues but i never tried those in my pit fires.

i have been meaning for a while to get brave and try re-firing one of my pit fire pieces with a clear glaze over it. i assume that it's possible because they are basically just bisquewear when they come out of the pit.

edited to add: maybe a colored slip or underglaze would show up on pit fired pieces? also not something I've tried but i don't see why it wouldn't. you would just potentially get oxidized black patches that might obscure or muddy your colors

It’s beginning!!!!!

I also like working with my hands so building a giant oven sounds like a good time to me. Maybe I should try fire pit stuff first though. Do you know what kind of clay would be good for the fire pit technique? I know it needs to low fire and that’s about it.

Mad scientist but with pottery

to be completely honest, building a kiln myself would terrify me 😅 but they are very expensive, so I doubt I’ll be getting my own either. let me know if you do end up making one!

and I think you should definitely try pit firing! it seems like a really cool way to fire. I haven’t gotten to try it yet, hopefully one day. so unfortunately I don’t have any advice for you about kinds of clay

most of what I know about pit firing is from Kit Grindeland, (goblinhands on instagram)

Handbuilt earthenware, pit fired and decorated with hand painted slip and underglaze accents.

This mask is a part of a (loosely connected) mask series, all hand-built and fired using a range of different temperatures and techniques.

This mask was my first pit firing! I'm super happy with how it turned out, as well as the colouration it ended up with. Initially, I had intended for the fish to be a sort of silvery blue, but it ended up with some neat pink and smokey look across the whole mask.

Some photos of it during firing as well as pre-fire (and the inside which u should totally look at bc the colours r neat) are under the cut!