June Firing

Well, we squeezed a small firing on June 9th, tried to get the our large pit, but it was a fun challenge in the 4x4.  We opted to continue to work on our firing in fire pits.  They are much smaller, and easier to control, however we do not reach the same temperature range as we do in the large pit, but is much, much faster.  I've decided to call this new firing "Fire Pit Pottery", since it is faster and much lower temp, we increased the amount of colorants to compensate.  Each piece is individually wrapped in paper with the colorants next to the piece and placed in the fire pit.  once the pit is full with fill the gaps with sawdust and small pieces of wood and light it up.

The results are darker than our normal pit fired pieces, but still have the complex layers and patterns.  We did a couple last year this way because of the drought, but have decided to keep the process and continue to play with it.

Pit Firing 11-6-11

Well, we did what is likely the final pit firing of the year this past weekend. We dug a new pit, using a trench style vs our old standard a large circle or square. We only had 25-30 pots to fire so space wasn't a big necessity this time.

Using the trench was an learning experiment, I believe I can accomplish the same firing with less materials, since there was less square footage. I used definitely a lot less wood, I left a good size pile from what we would normally use for the firing. The fire also burned longer and the ash bed was very large and took a long time to dwindle down. I also used a lot less chemicals this time, notice a little less of the copper reds, but it produced a lot more greens.

I also encountered higher wind delays, was planning on firing at 8 am, but ended up waiting until 5:30 pm as the sun was setting. This turned out to be a great experience, not only watching the fire in the dark and easily seeing the different colored flames. I also utilized the coal bed to test colorants and see what they produced. I only wish I had brought more alone.

There are a few photos of the firing on Facebook, it will most likely be a while before I clean and seal the pots. We are planning a foil saggar firing this week, and then it hockey nearly every night and weekend from now through March. Don't worry I still get my shelves filled so I can fire once the snow goes away.

Thanks for reading,
Chad

Stoneware

Recently I did another stoneware(cone 5) firing, mainly to complete some custom orders/special requests. this typically not something I do often, but find myself doing more and more of to increase revenues.

This last firing I continued to play with Amaco Potter Choice glazes, and am really liking the results. Very smooth and easy to apply, and doesn't run. I did play a little with layering the glazes over one of my DPS Standbys and the results were wanting me to play more.

I posted pics of what I call the tri-batter-bowls, basically a bowl distorted in to a triangle shape, has 3 spouts and up to 3 handles. I use a different glaze on each side with overlaps in the spouts. The two are sold. the 3rd was a test piece, but will most likely be out for the Open House in December. Kiesha wants a few more also by the open house. given the feedback on both Facebook and Google+, I just might have to do it. It also in encouraging me to delve back into stoneware. I have been toying with it all year, but I think I need to narrow down my color spectrum 1st.

Until next time, take care. I attached the photo of the tri batter bowls incase you don't follow FB or G+

saggar firing 9-20-11

This week worked on getting a quick firing for the piece I was planning on using for the Paint the Night Pink event here in Sioux Falls.  The deadline is this Friday.  the 20" platter/low bowl turned out AWESOME, it did exactly what I wanted it to do.  Got it home and washed up with all the others so I could start sealing today so I can photograph it and write an blurb about.  When done today and there was a chip in the rim!  I don't think I did it, and the kids were not in the studio, I blame the cat.  She has been hiding down there a little too much lately.  Anyhow, I have other pieces for the benefit, and Kiesha will get another broken piece for her wall.

Recent Firing

We at Up in Smoke Pottery did a firing over the weekend, and got a few awesome pieces. Over the next few days we will get them cleaned, waxed, and inventoried. The paper saggars are out of this world. The new clay body is excellent, i love throwing it, it takes the thermal shock great. We had 37 pieces in the pit and only 2 broke! 23 of them will be finished as pits, which is 62%!!!

Check out our facebook page for pics soon. Search "Up in Smoke Pottery" in the search box and say you "like it" to continue to get updates.

Chad

What a weekend!

Its been a great weekend, the weather held in the 30's in the morning and hit 60-70's in the afternoon. We got out and prepared the pit for firing, cleaned it out and repaired any damage from the cows. We fired a load in the pit, and a load of saggars, and last week spent the week doing blackware pieces. In my opinion we got some great pieces, I especially favor the saggars, they have the same hash marks, but are deeper gray/brown and the oranges are more diffuse giving the pots a warm glow. I might have to keep one for myself, We will see if Kiesha can find room for it.
As for the Pit Firing, another potter suggested I try some bacon grease. He advised he gave interesting results....well I can say this, it did make some interesting patterns on the side of the pots. I placed approx. 2 soup cans of grease in the pit in two different locations the colors of the pots were what I would call swamp green/brown. The pieces gave the appearance of a quilt, with areas of different shades of the swamp green/brown, but the unique part is they had a defined border.
The rest of the pit was normal, lots of great red, pink, burgundy, gray, black, green, and some blue. The new clay held up great, did have some breakage, but I contribute most of those to being inpatient and me lifting the pieces out from the fire. OOPS
This week, wax, photo, and inventory.

November firing pics

Here are a couple photos of the firing we did couple weekends ago. We forgot the camera on firing day, so we didn't get any before shots. Once I get them all cleaned up and waxed I will post a couple more photos.

November firing results

Well we did it. We ended up firing on Sunday afternoon. Started by digging a new pit. We eliminated the dung, salt logs, and saggars in this firing. We played with increasing the ratio of bananas, also played with baking soda vs salt. We also had several other "test" in this pit. Luckily we are just firing for a little stock so we did not need a big turnout. The baking soda did not produce or facilitate the colors as the salt did. The bananas did not do as they had in the past. The stoneware did not handle the firing as well as it had in the past. We will add the dung and salt logs back into the mix next spring. We have a few finishable pieces which I will post some of the pics later this week. On the bright side, the new pit design worked wonderfully, burned evenly and created a even bed of ash for the pots to finish in. We had a chance to bury pit #2 so it can return to the prairie landscape. And best of all the cows stayed away this time!

One more firing this fall

Well, we are going to do one more pit fire this fall. We are planning on Monday 11/2. The weather looks to cooperate, with only a slight chance of rain on Sunday. We were thinking about Saturday, but it rained almost all of Thursday, overnight, and chance of snow on Friday. That may make it a little damp to get into the pasture. We may even have help on Monday. A fellow potter from Luverne, MN is wanting to pit fire a couple pieces and we were happy to oblige. She may even venture out and partake in the fun. I guess you can say she is the guinea pig for a pit-firing seminar we are supposed to do next year. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.

Well, here are the results of the recent wood firing. We reached cone 10 in about 9 hrs and maintained temp for another 12 or so. We had a great amount of ash on the pieces as you can see on the face cups. The sides are bare, there is a rutile wash over the face area. The vase is one of my favorite shinos, although it did not perform as normal, but still turned out okay. The house numbers did not get as much ash as i would have hoped, but it gives them a nice rustic look.

Wood Fire

Well it is that time of year again. About once a year We decide to play with some high fire work, I use the same clay body, but I do play with glazes. This year it is a wood fire, I participated in about 6-8 of these, various degrees of success. This year I am doing "snot cups" again, typically I have finished them in the gas kiln, but timing is right for the wood fire. I also have new house number tiles, and I did throw in one vase with a glaze i really like. Tomorrow it will be lit, and it will be my responsibility to watch it overnight. If things turn out I may post a couple pics in a few days.

Pit Fire part 1

I have been asked at recent show to show a few photos of the process. I know some people do not believe I use white clay, but you can see for yourself in picture #2. These are from the firing we did on 8/24/2009.

Here is a pit, yes it truly is a hole in the ground.

This is the base layer, organics such as leaves, grass, etc plus sawdust and the first colorants.

The pieces are set in the hole, notice a few paper bag saggars in the mix.

Now add some wood, and some more wood....

light it up and watch it burn.

Pit Fire part 2

Once the fire is going we let it go. We watch to make sure the grass doesn't start burning outside the pit area. This fire was very hot, the dark orange flames put the temperature of the fire between 1800-2000 degrees (according to a old book from 1905). The pots are not at that temperature just the flames at their base.

Here are photos of some of the pieces, notice there is not a lot of color yet. The pots go in white, initially turn black from the smoke and as they heat the black burns off at about 1000-1200
degrees. The clay will remain white until it cools more of the color becomes apparent.

Pit Fire part 3

Above is the the pit when we went back in the morning.

Here are some of the pieces out of the pit. They will be washed and waxed later.

I Hope you enjoyed the photos of our recent firing. It was not our best for color but you at least get an idea of the process. Thanks for looking and feel free to comment or send me and email with any questions.

Chad

June's Pit Fire

Well, I did it, not possibly the best idea to fire the pit in a thunderstorm. In case you didn't catch the hint...IT RAINED! I reached the pit and the skies were light gray, weatherman said i had until 3 pm, it is 9am so I began. I dug out the damage from the cows and began the layers, When I had about half the pit filled, the wind picked up. I was at a point of no return with out losing the chems and other materials so i continued as fast as I could, hoping i could get it lit and fully engulfed in fire before the rain hit. I didn't make it. My son was busy chasing down the tubs and paper as the wind blew them across the county. I lost several newspapers, a box of banana peels, and lots of paper bags. As i put the last of the wood onto the pile I was at nearly at 45 a degree angle against the wind. I tried lighting the paper but the rain had won, i was soaked. I gave up and headed to my parents to wait out the storm.
4 hrs later i was able to return to the pit, the cows that are in that pasture decide the wood pile was fun to climb on, there was a cow standing on top of the pit. It ran off as i got closer. The edge of the pit was caved in with hoof prints, I'm was sure most of the edge pieces were destroyed. There was also plenty of fresh manure on and in the pit, which is good in the storm i didn't throw any in. I did manage to get it to light. I let is burn for about an hour and I covered it since i had to get back to town for kids activities.
We went back this morning, and it was better then expected, there were only 4 broken pieces. Somehow the network of wood held the weight of the cow(s). The color were not as bold as our previous firings, I think the rain had rinsed the colorants either away or diluted them to lessen their potency. I post a few pics next week or so when i get them finished.

Rained out again!!

Well the weatherman was partially right, the rain was done by noon, but it was much more than the .1-.25 of an inch expected. Kiesha allowed me to take "her" good van in the field and get it covered in mud. The cows had destroyed the salt box kiln and trampled the wood pile. I guess the wood is "preseasoned" for the next firing. I cannot figure how or why the cows move the pottery shards all over the area. We are planning on trying on Tuesday again, it is supposed to be in the high 80's and 90's the next two days to dry the ground out a little. There is a still a 20% chance of rain in the overnights until then.

May Pit Fire

Well, I squeezed in another pit fire this week. I actually completed it in under a day, the 30 mph winds assisted in the cooling and mostly like fueled the fire so it burned faster. I did not notice much change in the results, but I will know more in a few days when I wash the pieces. Next week we are planning to do a few saggar firing to stock up for the summer shows. I'll post a few pics when I get a chance. Thanks for looking

Pit Fire Results

Well, we finally had time to clean and seal the pieces from the last pit fire. Here are a couple of the photos from the pit and some of the finished pieces. Thanks for looking.

Pieces in the flames, they appear white now, but the colors appear as they cool.

Here are some of the results....Remember all colors are derived from vapors getting trapped in the pores of the clay while it is hot. There are no glazes of any kind.

Well, the 1st pit fire of the year is complete. The weather complied just enough to let us do it. We had to dig a new pit since the vehicles could not cross the creek to our normal pit we have used in the past. This pit is a true pit and we needed to jump into it. It was so deep initially we hit ground water and had to fill it in to get a solid base. When we returned to open the pit, it had filled part way with water submerging most of the pots. We only fired about 35 pieces, of which about 30 survived. I think we were too rough loading it and broke most of those in the process. We did get some awesome reds on some of the pieces and several blue areas. The oranges were not as prevalent this time, will have to work on that. Over all not bad considering the weather, we have several nice pieces which I will take pics soon and post.
We also played with a salt box kiln. The results were mixed. I will continue to play with it and try to get the results I think it should produce.