KATHLEEN hill on wed 8 oct 97
Jeannie
I have put quite a few "already fired" pots through a sawdust "pitfire".
I use a 55 gallon drum with three to four rows of small holes,6-8 inches
apart, punched in with a large nail. I put a firebrick in the bottom to
set the pot on, then crumple a layer of newspapers in the bottom of the
barrel. I add wood shavings (fine sawdust does not work as well unless
layered with paper and other misc. stuff like leaves etc.) I build a
fire on top with paper and kindling, light it, let it burn till the
kindling is mostly coals and the wood shavings are burning, then cover
with a flat piece of metal.
I build large nonfunctional vessels and like the smoke and crazing that
this process adds to the clear glaze on the surface of the pot. The only
problem is creosote that forms on the cover and sometimes drips/runs on
the pot!! Usually this can be scrubbed off with steel wool and elbow
grease. But sometime it is too thick. This seems to be worst in slow
burning "pitfires". Someone else may have a solution to this.
Kathy
in sunny and unseasonably warm OH;
with a teenager who lives for snowboarding and is worried about the
effects of El nin~o on the coming snowboarding season.
Lynn Korbel on wed 20 oct 99
Hi--hope everyone is enjoying the lovely fall season. I have been attempting
to achieve the beautiful look of sawdust fireing, but have been unsuccessful.
Have tortured pots and rattles alike in 3 tries at this. There is no magic
to the pieces--look only like they have been in a bad fire. Am following
Martha Puckett's how-to in Pottery Making Illustrated's Fall 98 issue and am
so dissappointed, borderline depressed. Using salt and copper sulfate (root
killer, actually) for colourful patterning.
Has anyone else tried Martha's technique?
Lynn Korbel,
on the Mississippi Gulf Coast looking forward to a weekend of pots, pots, and
more pots, at the George E. Ohr Fall Festival.
http://members.aol.com/lynnesque3/lynn.htm
Lynnesque Pottery
Olivia T Cavy on thu 21 oct 99
Lynn,
Cheryl Litman and I made a pit firing in my Weber grill not long ago,
using wood (using dry, little logs and branches). We also immersed the
pots in a copper sulfate solution, and put some copper carbonate & salt
paste on some areas of the pots. That (mostly hardwood) fire in the Weber
got quite hot, although we had no way to measure the temperature. I know
it was hot because pots removed from the fire and dunked in water sizzled
more than a few seconds, and raised the water temperature in our bucket
noticeably.
The pots I used were test pots made of white stoneware (nothing that I'd
let leave the house) and I got great colors- dark reds, golden yellows
and a variety of black and grays- with interesting patterns. Cheryl used
a very nice bowl, with the copper and salt the exact same way as I did.
Her bowl developed NO color whatsoever. It had nice blacks and grays, but
zero reds and golds. She said that she's used this clay in pit firings
previously and it doesn't seem to develop ANY colors.
So, it is possible that your clay is at least part of your problem!
I used Standard Ceramics clay #181 in the Weber, and Cheryl used a
heavily grogged clay about which I have no further information.
Bonnie
Bonnie D. Hellman, Pittsburgh, PA
PA work email: oliviatcavy@juno.com (NO attachments please to this
address)
PA home email: mou10man@sgi.net (that's the number 10 in the middle of
the letters)
On Wed, 20 Oct 1999 16:26:20 EDT Lynn Korbel writes:
>
> ----------------------------Original
> message----------------------------
> Hi--hope everyone is enjoying the lovely fall season. I have been
> attempting
> to achieve the beautiful look of sawdust fireing, but have been
> unsuccessful.
> Have tortured pots and rattles alike in 3 tries at this. There is
> no magic
> to the pieces--look only like they have been in a bad fire. Am
> following
> Martha Puckett's how-to in Pottery Making Illustrated's Fall 98
> issue and am
> so dissappointed, borderline depressed. Using salt and copper
> sulfate (root
> killer, actually) for colourful patterning.
> Has anyone else tried Martha's technique?
>
> Lynn Korbel,
> on the Mississippi Gulf Coast looking forward to a weekend of pots,
> pots, and
> more pots, at the George E. Ohr Fall Festival.
>
> http://members.aol.com/lynnesque3/lynn.htm
> Lynnesque
> Pottery
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Randall Moody on fri 22 oct 99
I have not tried Martha's technique, but used my own hybrid of all the
info I gleaned from many sources. I found that alternating layers of firmly
packed sawdust with loosly packed sawdust helped a great deal. I also found
that hard wood dust is better than soft woods such as pine. Pine tends to
make everything black ... and not a very interesting black. At the time I
did this I had acces to sawdust composed of oak, cherry, mahogony and teak.
But that was in Mobile ALA. You can also use banana leaves and sea weed for
good effect.
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hi--hope everyone is enjoying the lovely fall season. I have been
attempting
> to achieve the beautiful look of sawdust fireing, but have been
unsuccessful.
> Have tortured pots and rattles alike in 3 tries at this. There is no
magic
> to the pieces--look only like they have been in a bad fire. Am following
> Martha Puckett's how-to in Pottery Making Illustrated's Fall 98 issue and
am
> so dissappointed, borderline depressed. Using salt and copper sulfate
(root
> killer, actually) for colourful patterning.
> Has anyone else tried Martha's technique?
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