Mary Lou Zeek on sat 8 mar 97
Hi clayarters, I'm teaching and would love to have my students experience a
pitfiring. We will need to do this above ground in a steel drum since we're
located downtown. I know about layering with sawdust, paper, wood,but what
can I do to get some flashing of color?. Could I wrap some of the pots in
copper wire? Sprinkle the pots and sawdust with copper?(I'm brainstorming)
When the pieces are densely packed do they blacken more? Does burnishing
help the pot? A suggestion for a good book in which I could find this
information? Thanks so much, Mary Lou Zeek, Oregon
p.s. the cow dung in Oregon has reached it's saturation point...rain, rain
,rain....
Wendy Hampton on sun 9 mar 97
I bisque my pitfired pieces with a wash of cobalt and/or iron oxide. This
gives the piece lots of color. I have tried a wash of the same just before
the pitfire and I get little color. I have also used a soluable copper and
wet the sawdust where I laid the pieces. Again a small amount of color.
good luck
Wendy from Bainbridge Island WA
Marjorie Hines on sun 9 mar 97
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
what
>can I do to get some flashing of color?. Could I wrap some of the pots in
>copper wire? Sprinkle the pots and sawdust with copper?(I'm brainstorming)
>
Hello to all from a previous lurker...
In response to MaryLou-
If you have access to any seaweed/kelp, it can give you some
interesting effects. I used whole ropes/chunks of dried seaweed wrapped
around the pot, then wrapped tightly in foil to hold the seaweed in place.
We did a your basic dung pit fire, and the results are always a surprise!
One of my pots resulted in a beautiful grey/terracotta/tan leopard spotted
effect. Some ended up with pastel rainbow colors. Each piece will be
different.
I'm sure that burnishing will give you some beautiful effects as well! I'm
jealous.. I havent been able to primitive fire for soooo long! I love the
process, especially when you do it with friends/fellow students.
Best of luck for a beautiful firing!
Marjorie
Marjorie Hines
SpiritWorks Art Company E-mail: spiritworks@earthlink.net
1437F South Victoria Ave #120
Ventura, CA 93003 Fax- 805-289-1411
**** HANDMADE CERAMIC ORNAMENT & DECORATIVE ART ****
Inspired by Ancient Rock Art and Native Peoples of the Americas
*+*+* FREE BROCHURE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST *+*+*
Marjorie Hines
SpiritWorks Art Company E-mail: spiritworks@earthlink.net
1437F South Victoria Ave #120
Ventura, CA 93003 Fax- 805-289-1411
**** HANDMADE CERAMIC ORNAMENT & DECORATIVE ART ****
Inspired by Ancient Rock Art and Native Peoples of the Americas
*+*+* FREE BROCHURE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST *+*+*
Rebecca Ireland on sun 9 mar 97
I teach primtive firing (pit firing) at hs level using a metal garbage can.
I rope off the area. Stuff newspaper, seaweed, dead fish, whatever, around
it and light it on fire with one of those barbeque lighters (longer than a
conventional lighter) or sometimes a candle. The pots have to be bisque
fired first. Leave the lid slightly off the can rather than covering it
completely. I go out and check on it all day. When it's all burned out I
unload it with gloves on. We dump the ashes in the garbage and wash off the
pots. It's simple, but it works. I keep a fire extinguisher nearby. I also
have to notify the Principal and the local fire department at least a day
before we do a firing. Initially, the school insurance inspector had to have
a write-up on it too, but now I do it whenever.
Carol Ratliff.clayart.CLAYART.MAILING LIST on sun 9 mar 97
In a message dated 97-03-08 09:07:42 EST, you write:
<< I know about layering with sawdust, paper, wood,but what
can I do to get some flashing of color?. Could I wrap some of the pots in
copper wire?
yes
<yes
<They help each other trap the fumes. You can put materials next to pot and
sort of shard them against next pot, etc. It takes forever to pack right -
preguessing where pieces will nestle to as the fire burns down helps. Too
tight and there is no airflow to allow fumes to travel which leaves that nice
blush of color you'll want. Too loose and the fumes travel away to never
never land. Where the pieces sit in the sawdust you should get a nice black.
<yes!!!!!!!!!!!! You can also try a terra sig burnished on.
have fun,
carol ratliff, san diego
stefan Jansson on sun 9 mar 97
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi clayarters, I'm teaching and would love to have my students experience a
>pitfiring. We will need to do this above ground in a steel drum since we're
>located downtown. I know about layering with sawdust, paper, wood,but what
>can I do to get some flashing of color?. Could I wrap some of the pots in
>copper wire? Sprinkle the pots and sawdust with copper?(I'm brainstorming)
>When the pieces are densely packed do they blacken more? Does burnishing
>help the pot? A suggestion for a good book in which I could find this
>information? Thanks so much, Mary Lou Zeek, Oregon
Hi,
try solving salt (tablesalt or whatever) in water and add copper oxide or
karbonate and paint the pots with this, then wrap each one of them with
leaves, old t-shirts, paper or whatever. I did this in another kind of
firing that I think could be similar to pitfiring (there has to be some
oxygen, not totally reduced) and got really nice red, blue, green. (but no
gloss)
Lottie Eriksson in Sweden
Emily Henderson on sun 9 mar 97
At 08:46 AM 3/8/97 EST, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi clayarters, I'm teaching and would love to have my students experience a
>pitfiring. We will need to do this above ground in a steel drum since we're
>located downtown. I know about layering with sawdust, paper, wood,but what
>can I do to get some flashing of color?. Could I wrap some of the pots in
>copper wire? Sprinkle the pots and sawdust with copper?(I'm brainstorming)
>When the pieces are densely packed do they blacken more? Does burnishing
>help the pot? A suggestion for a good book in which I could find this
>information? Thanks so much, Mary Lou Zeek, Oregon
>
>p.s. the cow dung in Oregon has reached it's saturation point...rain, rain
>,rain....
>
>Hi MaryLou...fellow WET Oregonian (Hey, where are you?) sends regards. I
do not "barrel burn" but I do pitfire in very large pits at the beach. My
interest is color. Burnishing can affect color. Try an old silver
spoon..the more tarnish the better. The wood will affect color. Cedar
sawdust tends to give me oranges. We got a lot of cedar here on the Coast.
Claybodies will also affect. Get one with nearly no grog if you want to
burnish, but sometimes, the grog will burnish and gives me little red
specks. What the cows have been eating DOES make a difference. A friend
tried some of these color stones you find in the bottoms of aquariums? She
got some great colors with a layer of that stuff in the barrel. If you
throw in a handful of copper carb you will get red where it touches the
pots. (I don't do this because I don't want to use chemicals in my
pitfires) My experience with porcelain and earthenwares is they give me the
most color but they loose their burnish in firing. Try making a leaf design
on a clay pad and rest your pot on it on its side; you might get a
"negative" of the clay mask ending up smoked on your pot. You make these
"masks" just before you fire. You don't want them to completely stick
because you'll only get a "white spot rather than a shadow. I'd like to try
a barrel sometime. Please let me know your results. Oh, for my fires, we
always have a picnic...it's been suggested that hotdogs are great additives
for the nitrites but personally, I stick to what I can get out of clay,
seaweed, dung and wood. Emily, in Astoria where the fog is burning off and
HERE COME DA SUN
Jet on sun 9 mar 97
Hi Clayarters...
The last time we did a pit fire in an open barrel, we sprinkled copper
carbonate and red iron oxide on the pieces while in the barrel. You might
want to try some particle board as fuel, I hear in saggars that it gives
impressive flashes of color (probably due to all the chemicals in it).
However, I'm not sure it would have the same effect on a pit fire. As for
burnishing, I've not seen it affect color, but if it's burnished really
well, the shine is beautiful.
Jeannette
Joyce Lee, Jim Lee on mon 10 mar 97
Wendy Hampton wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> I bisque my pitfired pieces with a wash of cobalt and/or iron oxide. This
> gives the piece lots of color. I have tried a wash of the same just before
> the pitfire and I get little color. I have also used a soluable copper and
> wet the sawdust where I laid the pieces. Again a small amount of color.
> good luck
> Wendy from Bainbridge Island WA
What color are your pitfired pieces when you take them from the pit?
Black or mottled gray/black or? Thanks.
Joyce
Too windy to pitfire today but my bisque looks pretty good, or at least
not bad.
James Dapogny on tue 11 mar 97
Hi,
I know this is really a naive question but I'm very curious about pit and
sagger firing. Can you use a soda mixture on the pots in the sagger? If
so, what sort of solution do you use and how heavy? Do you then wrap the
soda-washed areas in a particular substance? Does this produce an orange?
Also, what about using wood chips in place of sawdust in a sagger?
What's the ideal temperature for pit or sagger firing?
Thanks..---Gail Dapogny in Ann Arbor
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