Pit Fire - April 28 2002
Click on the vase to see more finished pieces.
The group from the Glaze Making Class at Craft Center at UCSD had a pit fire in April 2002. We met at Fiesta Island and started putting the pit together. It's a wonderful way to spend a day with a group of people who share your love of ceramics. Everyone adds to the success of the day. One person will bring pallets to burn, another will bring the marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate. I have access to horse hair because I have a friend with horses, so I brought that to apply to the hot pieces. I brought wood shavings too, because I work at Petco, and we sell them in the stores for small animal bedding.
This page needs a lot of narration, but basically, we spray the pieces with copper in solution, and wrap copper wire, brillo pads, sea weed, and anything else we can think of around the bisqued pieces. Then we build a bonfire, with the pieces in the middle. Then we light it and watch it burn. There's something so great about watching the fire... And we made s'mores too, when the fire burned down a little.
Then, as the fuel is used up, the pots become visible in the ashes. It was a cool breezy day, and some of the pieces broke, probably due to thermal shock of a cool wind hitting the hot pieces.
These pictures are in chronological order from left to right. If you do a mouse over, you will see the description of what they are about. You'll have to remember to do the back button to come back to this page...
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