Pit firing pottery
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ย. 2020
- My ongoing experiments in firing earthenware in a pit with wood. The better we start to understand the process, the better our results get. With each firing we tweak the process for a more consistent result and you are welcome to learn from our experiences. Enjoy!
Really good method, lovely video with no waffling on about nonsense like most of the men's ones!
Great video, love watching the bloopers as it makes me feel better about all my explosions! Good work
Nice video! Very clear and has some real learning points for everyone teaching and learning by trying it out
This is exactly what i needed.
Started a new job where we teach kids outdoor skills. My last attempt to fire pottery resulted in a 90% failure rate. This will help the next batch considerably. Should avoid a lot of tears.
I am still getting hairline cracks but the pottery is at least functional. I have not quite figured out why yet but think it has something to do with rapid cooling when the pottery surfaces after being submerged in the coals (when I hear the plinking), so even though this was a recommendation by another pitfiring potter, from now one I will bank right before, when they are still under the coals. If you are using dirt to bank with, make sure it does not touch the pots, as the cold dirt can also cause heat fractures.
Good luck and let us know what your class thinks :)
Did our first pit firing this weekend and had a success rate of about 40%. Made a lot of mistakes but thanks to your video we are now devising a better strategy for our next firing.
that sounds fantastic, thank you for sharing! and please share your updates with us as well, we are all learning here. The biggest tip I learned from this fire is to place the pots sideways as much as their shape allows, or if placed upside down, to cover with larger sherds to help temps to stay more stable around the belly of the pots. Good luck!
That rooster really wanted a cameo! 😂🐓
Awesome video! Likes and subscribed, bravo, keep up the great work
This was excellent in the step by step explanation of how you do your pit fire. Very encouraging. Well done. Clay not dry enough, thr roof coming down on it, or tossing something in a bit hard, but I think the method is solid. I would swap out stone floor for fired tiles. You could just fire tiles for the purpose, then you have a flat floor that won't crack like stone.
I like this video
Although it's a very traditional method but yes still I find potteries more attractive.
Interessant, Susan! Meteen geabonneerd. :-)
Some of the pottery seemed to have fireclouds, despite the high temperature.
Why do you fire for so long? From what ive read you only need to reach the temp not hold it at that temp. Im new to this still and just curious why you fire for so long.
That's a whole lot of decent looking lumber
deconstructed shipping crates and pallets. I save the nice hardwood ones for building stuff.
Saving the world one scrap pallet at a time.
Maybe the bottom of the pots that cracked had thicker bases/walls this retained more moisture and cracked when the water could not escape. Thicker walls and bases should be in an area of the kin that heats longer duration and more slowly (farther away from direct heat). Perhaps using a metal cage or lid cover over all the bowls will help keep the coals and fire away from the bowls more to give more distance and heat them more evenly and indirectly. It seems like the bottom of your bowls were closest to the heat source. Also using a consistant thickness compared to the other bowls that did not crack may help in the next firing. But it seems like you know what you are doing already. Thanks for sharing!
The white colors are really nice though! How do you retain the white color? Mine get black marks in the pit fire.
😮😮😮😢
nice
i would like to try that
"Purple Haze"
You sound a bit like my family. ❤️❤️
5:15 A note of caution: NEVER use river stones--there is a very good chance they will explode in the heat.
Watch primitive technology's video on pit firing. See specifically how he completely covers the pieces to avoid thermal shock
I did, he does fantastic videos. I saw the same technique in native american pit and stacked firing as well but ironically, I do not have enough large shards (yet) to emulate this. I have contemplated buying some large terra cotta pots to break for shards but have not tried that yet. This year its been too wet to fire in-ground, my pit never dried out enough for successful firing.
@@susanverberg Andy Ward has some good suggestions regarding "ancient firing methods."
@@mikeu5380Thank you, that looks good! We're getting ready to do another pitfire - once the rains let up, that is - and any tips are greatly appreciated. ancientpottery.how/
@@susanverberg We're trying such firings here in northern Japan, wondering how the ancients of Japan (Jomon, Yayoi) did it... ; )
Would you be able to do this with regular terracotta clay? I believe terra cotta clay that I've found was rated for cone 06 - cone 1. Which is like 1800F degrees and up.
you could, it just won't fire completely - cinter instead of vitrify.
Are garden pots vitrified? They seem very porous.
Is it commercial clay and did you put grog in it? If so, what percentage grog and what kind of grog?
It is commercial clay, and I did not put grog in. I do not have a local pottery store. I now mostly use low-fire earthenware or raku clay, which already has grog.
@@susanverberg I am really glad to hear that. I have a lot of low fire clay. And I am eager to fire it like you did. 🙂🤞🏻
How many hours did the fire was on ?
4 to 5 hours, but that includes the preheating. It needs about an hour of full red heat to cinter properly (to become water resistant). Pit fires rarely get hot enough for full vitrification (which is why potters often prebake, bisque, their greenware).
@@susanverberg I did my first last weekend with only one survivor out of 7 and surely was because of the preheating. Will take more care of it next time ! Thanks a lot !
@@adrianaaguayo7579 preheating is extremely important. even when I start heating the pots around the fire, they've already gone through a few stages of drying and heating. I often start them with the woodstove, first in front, then on top, always with gentle heat. Some people use their oven to preheat, slowly stepping up the heat to 500F (I think over two hours, google it if you're interested). Others bisque their pots first. This is not only to drive off moisture, but also to make sure the whole of the clay wall, thin and thick, is at around the same heat level. If there is too much heat differential, there will be stress, which can lead to stress fractures (hence firing jars rim down or even better, on their side). Good luck!
Can I burn a statue made I clay using the fire pit?
It's a 12 kilo figure?
you should be able to, but I highly suggest you try with sacrificial pottery first to get a feel for the process - it is finicky!
Are those pots raw or have they been bisque fired.
they have not been bisqued, which means they come out cintered - won't dissolve in water - but not vitrified - turned into a glass and thus waterproof.
@@susanverberg thank you for you reply. Btw I love your pit fire.
Unmistakably Dutch accent
no use for the pit if you have a kiln. the whole point is if you don't.
well the whole point is to experiment how ancient people made it without a kiln, and actually many other ancient culture that still exist today still used the open fire and trench fire methodes and the pot is just fine and beautifully fired. In Lombok Indonesia, in Java and also in many part of Africa they still use open fire for every size of pots even as big as a water tank jar.