Cheryl L Litman on thu 24 jul 97
I have several questions for people who pit fire. I've seen mention of
using all or some of the following methods. Who uses which methods and
what do you recommend to a neophyte as a jumping off point?
1. burnishing?
2. terra sig?
3. slips/engobes?
4. brushed oxides?
5. do you use a glaze(s) ?
6. bisque temperature of the piece?
7. glaze temperature of glazed pieces? (I'm assuming you glaze fire first
then pit fire?
8. what type of glazes work best, matt, gloss? would you share your
recipe?
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
TIA
Cheryl Litman
cheryllitman@juno.com
Claudia O Driscoll on fri 25 jul 97
Cheryl,
You DO have several questions! I can only address a few, but for a
start, consider the clay you will use. I use earthenware, both red and
white and raku clay for the larger pieces. All can be nicely burnished
and I find burnishing gives a wonderful look to the finished piece.
I have had luck with 'painting' designs on the earthenware pieces, then
burnishing them into the body. It takes good timing and great care to keep
the design nice and sharp. Best results come from a simple oxide/slip
colorant.
Your bisque temperature should be low enough to allow good smoke
patterns, but high enough to vitrify the clay. I fire from cone 010 to 06.
Terra sig is also a good experience! But you have to remember that
where the terra sig goes, the piece will soak up a lot more smoke and be
quite dark.
Hope this helps.
Claudia
Jonathan Kirkendall on fri 25 jul 97
Cheryl,
1. Burninshing: yes, I do it. It's both time consuming and fun.
2. Terra sig: try it. I did, but didn't keep doing it. It didn't "take"
with me.
3. Slips/engobes: yes, I've done it. See #5, below.
4. Brushed oxides: no. I do however make a salt-saturated solution with
copper carb in it and spray it on the pot with a simple mister before pit
firing.
5. Glazes: sometimes I have painted a design on the pot with an engobe,
then painted a clear, 06 glaze just over that, fired it, then pit fired
it. The glazed colored pattern contrasted nicely with the unglazed
background (after pit firing, the glazed are almost looks rakued).
6. I bisque to 06. A lot of folks bisque only to 08 or lower. In my
experience, that produces very dark pots, and I don't really like it. I
have found that at 06, there is a lot of contrast with the white clay
body.
7. If I use glaze, I use a low fire, 06 commercial clear gloss.
8. See 7.
You didn't ask about this, but I then finish my pit fired pots with tung
oil - apply it, then almost immediately wipe it off. I will say that I
discovered that one of my customers habitually uses one of my pit fired,
tung oil finished pots as a flower vase, and yes, it holds water without
leaving a ring. Wow! I don't recommend it, as I haven't had time to test
it at home.
Good luck,
Jonathan in DC, still looking for studio space and looking forward to
major pit firing in West Virginia.
Sherry mcDonald Stewart on fri 25 jul 97
I am also interested in this information, and since it is an area i
explore, i can add a thing or two, and hope to get a lot more
information from it myself. One thing I did with primitive firing that
was very nice, was spraying slips onto the pot or piece, and then
burnishing, and firing. There is a lot to explore there.
I build kilns of red brick, to fit the piece, and go to a hobby wood
crafter for pine shavings that are clean, never a cabinet shop! You can
experiment with colored commercial slips as well!
I designed my own spray booth, I painted the inside of a cardboard box
with wax, and cut a hole in the top, put a fan in, and set a foam filter
into the back end of the box. I used a small compresser with a homemade
copper tube to spray with, attached to a flexible tube that fastened to
the compresser. I use a yoplait (yogurt) cup to hold the glaze, and the
shape of it accomodates the copper sprayer and stays in the glaze so
that i have a hand free to turn the banding wheel. Anyone can afford a
spray booth like this.
I spray even pieces to be fored in conventional methods with slips, of
different colors, and a texture can be built up this way. I have made
some nice teapots like this that are very colorful, but don't look like
anything that is very common. Commercial engobes, and slips are fun to
work with and you may like to try them. They don't call them by those
names tho, they call them cover coates, and things like that, some go on
bisque, some only greenware. Well, good luck!
Lisa or Ginny on sat 26 jul 97
Jonathan Kirkendall wrote:
> 4. Brushed oxides: no. I do however make a salt-saturated solution with coppe
before pit firing.
Jonathan:
This sounds interesting; I have 2 questions:
What is the result of this treatment? What purpose does the salt serve?
--
Lisa Skeen
Living Tree Pottery & Soaps
http://www.uncg.edu/~lpskeen
YesIAmRU?
stevemills on sat 26 jul 97
Cheryl, You'll find most of the answers in "Sawdust Firing" by Karin
Hessenberg, Complete Potter series, published by Batsford.
Steve
In message , Cheryl L Litman writes
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>I have several questions for people who pit fire. I've seen mention of
>using all or some of the following methods. Who uses which methods and
>what do you recommend to a neophyte as a jumping off point?
>
>1. burnishing?
>2. terra sig?
>3. slips/engobes?
>4. brushed oxides?
>5. do you use a glaze(s) ?
>6. bisque temperature of the piece?
>7. glaze temperature of glazed pieces? (I'm assuming you glaze fire first
>then pit fire?
>8. what type of glazes work best, matt, gloss? would you share your
>recipe?
>
>Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
>
>TIA
>Cheryl Litman
>cheryllitman@juno.com
>
--
Steve Mills
@Bath Potters Supplies
Dorset Close
Bath
BA2 3RF
UK
Tel:(44) (0)1225 337046
Fax:(44) (0)1225 462712
Emily Henderson on sun 27 jul 97
At , you wrote:
>At , you wrote:
>>At 11:19 AM 7/25/97 EDT, you wrote:
>>>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Hi There.... It seems I have over 300 messages in my e-mail. I must be
busy. I'll throw my two cents worth in on the pit-firing and just add to
what others have suggested. For me, the choice of woods makes a difference.
They will impart different colors to clay bodies. At this point, I have a
red earthenware, a tan stoneware and 2 porcelains that I like working with.
Also, as I bonfire, it must be a big, VERY BIG fire to get hot enough to
"fire" the pots rather than to have them look "smoke damaged" not smoked.
I also have the luxury of using drift wood which is loaded with salts (I
can't specify what salts) and fire in cow dung which also can impart color
to my pots. Depending upon what kind of sawdust, fineness of the mill etc.
or excellsior you use, interesting paterns can result. My dust always is a
little damp (everything west of the coastal range in Oregon is a Leeeeetle
Damp) so that also affects the patterning. I don't use any copper carb or
any other chemical, but I'm into the "natural" thing in a major way. Please
be sure you use copper carbonate not (sulfate) if you decide to go this
route. Emily in Astoria, where it's pretty grey but I have a SUN BURN. We
had that bright thing in the sky all day yesterday and I was in it from 8:15
am 'til 9 pm last night.
Jonathan Kirkendall on tue 29 jul 97
>Jonathan Kirkendall wrote:
>> 4. Brushed oxides: no. I do however make a salt-saturated solution with
>coppe
>before pit firing.
>
>Jonathan:
>This sounds interesting; I have 2 questions:
>What is the result of this treatment? What purpose does the salt serve?
Lisa, My very favorite type of firing is low fire, salt sagger firing. I
started experimenting with pit firing after I moved away from access to
the salt sagger kiln. I never got the results I really liked until I
started using some techniques that I used in the salt sagger, ie,
spraying the pot with saturated salt solution with copper carb. What
this does in a pit firing is create mottling in the coloration and (maybe
it's the same thing) more contrast throughout the piece. I also wrap
copper wire around the piece and throw dog food in the firing around the
piece. Try it!
-Jonathan
Lisa or Ginny on wed 30 jul 97
Jonathan Kirkendall wrote:I
> started using some techniques that I used in the salt sagger, ie,
> spraying the pot with saturated salt solution with copper carb. What
> this does in a pit firing is create mottling in the coloration and (maybe> it'
wrap> copper wire around the piece and throw dog food in the firing
around the> piece. Try it!
> -Jonathan
Jonathan:
We are building a house and I am going to have the backhoe guy dig my
pit kiln. How deep d'ya think? I'm looking forward to this!
--
Lisa Skeen
Living Tree Pottery & Soaps
http://www.uncg.edu/~lpskeen
YesIAmRU?
Cindy on wed 30 jul 97
Jonathan,
I tried wrapping copper wire and couldn't see any results at all. Didn't
spray the saturated NaCl/Cu carb solution, though--is that why, maybe? How,
specifically, do you use the wire?
Cindy
I also wrap
> copper wire around the piece and throw dog food in the firing around the
> piece. Try it!
> -Jonathan
Lisa or Ginny on thu 31 jul 97
Ok, I couldn't stand it. I took a galvanized bucket, put in a layer of
frisbee-quality cow pie, layer of seaweed, a pot, more seaweed and cow
pie, and tried to light the sucker with a match. When that didn't work,
I tried using a candle. That didn't work either. What is the best way
to make cow poop burn?
--
Lisa Skeen
Living Tree Pottery & Soaps
http://www.uncg.edu/~lpskeen
YesIAmRU?
Dannon Rhudy on fri 1 aug 97
Lisa, manure burns at a fairly hot temperature. If you wish to
use it for firings, you ought perhaps to crumble it (though not
strictly necessary), make sure it is completely dry. As a general
thing, you will need quite a bit of air, so firing in a bucket
might not be the best way, anyway. You can start your fire,
however, with something that is easier to light: wood or sawdust
or charcoal, etc., and let the manure catch fire from that.
I have started it with crumpled paper, sometimes; have seen people
use lighter fluids of one kind and another though I don't care
for that sudden heat flash myself. I repeat, make sure you have
sufficient air circulation, especially from/around the bottom.
Dannon Rhudy
potter@koyote.com
----------------------------Original
message----------------------------
Ok, I couldn't stand it. I took a galvanized bucket, put in a
layer of
frisbee-quality cow pie, layer of seaweed, a pot, more seaweed and
cow
pie, and tried to light the sucker with a match. When that didn't
work,
I tried using a candle. That didn't work either. What is the
best way
to make cow poop burn?
--
Lisa Skeen
Living Tree Pottery & Soaps
http://www.uncg.edu/~lpskeen
YesIAmRU?
Andreas C Salzman on fri 1 aug 97
Responding to the message of Thu, 31 Jul 1997 09:00:19 EDT
from Lisa or Ginny :
>
What seems to work for me, is to make a flue out of chickenwire that runs
the depth of the can ( a role about 3 inches in diameter) . This way I can
get some oxygen to the poop on the bottom. The when I layer, I use
cardboard for the first 4 to 8 inches ( and add more as I pack ). The
cardboard burns really hot and fast. After I get really good heat going (
after the zinc has melted off the can ) I add sawdust / course cedar
shavings and dogfood ( I thought I came up with the dogfood idea, small
world). To start The fire I stuff newspaper in the flue and give it a
light.
Andy
salz0016@gold.tc.umn.edu
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Ok, I couldn't stand it. I took a galvanized bucket, put in a layer of
> frisbee-quality cow pie, layer of seaweed, a pot, more seaweed and cow
> pie, and tried to light the sucker with a match. When that didn't work,
> I tried using a candle. That didn't work either. What is the best way
> to make cow poop burn?
> --
> Lisa Skeen
> Living Tree Pottery & Soaps
> http://www.uncg.edu/~lpskeen
Patti M. Fox on fri 1 aug 97
Lisa or Ginny wrote: What is the best way
> to make cow poop burn?
> --
Lisa-- I can't give you the BEST way, but I can empathize with your
frustration. I spent 2 hours picking chips so I could try out the
Native Indian method written up in a recent Ceramics Monthly. Used up
almost 1/2 a can of grill lighter fluid trying to keep the pile
burning. The ware I'd spent serious time on burnishing was almost
bisque- the pile maybe burned as hot as cone 018. Am interested in
hearing what went wrong. Patti
John Guerin on sat 2 aug 97
In a message dated 97-07-31 11:54:06 EDT, you write:
<< Ok, I couldn't stand it. I took a galvanized bucket, put in a layer of
frisbee-quality cow pie, layer of seaweed, a pot, more seaweed and cow
pie, and tried to light the sucker with a match. When that didn't work,
I tried using a candle. That didn't work either. What is the best way
to make cow poop burn? >>
First of all, the cow pies must be very dry. This fuel is traditionally used
in the southwest where the summers are very dry. Second, it is usually placed
around the pottery in an open firing where there is pleanty of oxygen
available (you said you were burning it inside a bucket). Third, it is
usually started with some very dry kindling wood or other accelerent such as
charcoal lighter, kerosene or diesel fuel.
One other thing. The cow pies should be from range-fed cows. The grass fed
cow pies stick together in a clump where as grain fed cow pies tend to
crumble.
John Guerin
Tucson,AZ
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