Barrel Firing Results

I won't keep you in suspense any longer. My barrel firing was too hot to unload yesterday and tomorrow (actually this morning, since it's after midnight) I have a group coming early. What looked like hanging laundry in the previous post was salted raffia and burlap which I used to wrap the pieces for this barrel firing, which helped produce some great colors.


The two vases and the figure eight piece to the right are also from this firing. I feel like I've made some real progress on my barrel firings and now it's just about time for the burn ban to go into effect for the summer. Maybe we'll have a couple of more weeks, but I don't have anything else made or bisque fired unless I pull it out of the glaze firing. I'm waffling back and forth on that, what do you think?


Here's a sampling of the pendants. Some of the pendants have more subtle colors and others have dark, rich colors. I was planning on gluing bails on the ones without holes, but now am wondering what style and color of bails to use. I thought silver would be too shiny, but Gary thinks silver would look great. I've been looking around for copper, pewter, and other colored bails. I might have to get a sampling and see how each style looks next to the pendants before I glue them.


For those who asked about the pendants, pendants with holes are available in a day or two, the others should be ready in a couple of weeks. I'll post photos of what they look like with their bails when they are completed. Pendants range in size from 4 inches down to 3/4 inch long. I'll be posting them with a link individually so you can see them in more detail.


I also put a couple of my larger leaves, about 3.5 x 4.5 inches, in the firing. My leaves are usually for wind chimes, soap dishes or spoon rests, but since these aren't functional, I thought they would be nice to hang in a window. I remember doing macrame years ago and wish I remembered some of it now. It might be nice to have the leaves incorporated into a macrame piece. Not that I have time to do it, but who knows. I'll have to see about that.


Gary is taking full credit for the results of this firing since he put the straw, sawdust, and wood in the barrel, and lit the fire. Of course I outlined each step of the loading for him. He doesn't know how long it took me to prepare the ingredients and wrap each piece with my special technique. Actually he does, he kept asking me if I was ready to load the barrel. So this was a collaborative process. Gary said he knows the colors on the pots came from the butane lighter he used to light the fire.


Today I noticed these newly formed grapes growing in my garden, discovering them in this early stage is awesome. When we were transforming our landscape here, we uncovered lots of old horseshoes and we put them up on posts as rustic decor. I just thought of making some ceramic horseshoes and firing them in my next barrel firing. I just can't help myself, but I actually think it's a good idea. I better write it down so I won't forget. Toodles!

Saggar Fired Pendants

We loaded most of the kiln at school last night and when I got home, I just couldn't stay awake long enough to finish this post. My leaf panels and some pinch pots with experimental glazes are in this glaze load. So stay tuned for results maybe sometime next week or the week after, depending upon when they finish loading the rest of their pieces and then fire. I am especially anxious to see how my leaf panels do in the firing since they have a large footprint on the kiln shelf. Will they warp? Will the underglazes and glazes I used turn out? Please keep your fingers crossed for me.


My saggar fired pendants have some good colors, but there were also some with no color. I've taken these photos are after I cleaned the pendants, but I haven't coated the outside with anything. Once I coat them they will be even more beautiful. I was pleasantly surprised at the pendants made with half white clay and half terracotta clay. The first pendant above is one of those which shows nice color and contrast between the light and dark clay. The face pendant is made of the same terracotta clay which takes on a beautiful black sheen. The sheen doesn't show up very well in the photo unfortunately. I would love to make a smooth bowl with this terracotta clay and barrel fire it to see the results.


Here's the line up of the pendants, one through nine from left to right. I won't bore you with all the details. Saggar number two was aluminum and just copper carbonate, but saggar number eight was aluminum with copper carbonate and yellow iron oxide and there was very little color. Saggar number five didn't get any color, but I used cobalt and black iron oxide - no sense wasting any cobalt on firings.


Suffice it to say it doesn't seem to make a difference if I fire in a copper saggar or an aluminum foil sagger, the results are sporadic. The fire does what it wants. The one ingredient which consistently produces color is red iron oxide, either alone of combined with fertilizer, copper carbonate, banana peels, etc. I also don't think the fire got hot enough with this firing. Next time I plan on firing with a mixture of straw and sawdust and I'm not going to use the grate and see what happens. I think the grate allows a lot of air under the burning pieces and they don't get lasting heat and they cool down too quickly.


The aluminum saggars were completely burnt, but look at the copper saggar, it got some beautiful color. I wonder if I can incorporate this into a ceramic mixed media sculpture. I don't know much about metals, but I probably could get these same colors by flaming the copper roof flashing with a torch. I'll bet Cindy of Artmaking in the North could tell me all about this since she makes beautiful metal sculptures and knows all about working with metal. Each experiment leads me to more ideas about working with clay.


Well I'm headed outside to check my vegetable bins. Something has been eating my newly planted red leaf lettuce, butter crunch lettuce, and spinach. Could it be a raccoon? I heard one last night making that chirping and cooing noise, perhaps thanking me for such a nice meal. Here's a pink rose photo for today.

Pendant Barrel Firing

I fired nine saggars of pendants for my second barrel firing today. This time I used two copper roof flashing saggars in addition to the aluminum foil saggars I had success with in my first barrel firing. I assigned a number to each saggar, with a list of chemicals I added. I hope to determine which chemical combinations create which colors when they have cooled off. I put a number on the back of one pendant in each saggar. I realize it would have been easier if I had numbered every pendant, but that would have taken me too long. I wanted to start the barrel burning as soon as possible since we are expecting rain today.


I lit the barrel at 12 noon and it was still burning with coals on the bottom at 2:30 p.m. With this firing there wasn't as much smoke. I hope to be able to unload the barrel and open the saggars around 4:30 p.m. Some of the pendants are terra cotta clay and some are porcelain, both low fire clay. Oh, and some of the pendants are a combination of both clays.


While the barrel was burning, I was putting some underglazes and slips on greenware pieces I made a few weeks ago. Don't know if you tell in the photo, but this porcelain tree sculpture, after the application of oxide tinted slip, is now tan in color. I mixed two different oxides into slip and put it on the tree. Can you guess which oxides I used? I was feeling adventurous and just went for it. Have you done this type of an experiment before? How much oxide did you mix into the slip? What should I expect? Have I ruined it. Oh, I know, you're going to say I just have to wait and see what happens when it's fired.


OK, then come back tomorrow for the results of the pendant barrel firing. As for the oxide colored slip tree sculpture, those results will be posted some time in the future, so we all have to wait on that one. I forgot to post a rose photo last time, here's a rose for today. I just love this rose, the petals look like crepe paper.

First Barrel Firing

Pinch Bowl One
Interior View

Pinched Bowl One
Front View
2.5 h x 5 w

Pinch Bowl One
Back View

Pinch Bowl Two
3 h x 4 w

Two Itty-Bitty Pinch Bowls
1 h x 2.5 w

Dusty Miller Pendant
3 x 2

Two more Dusty Miller Pendants

Sage Leaf Pendants
ranging from 4 in long down to 2.25 in

I cleaned the pieces but didn't put any wax on them because I was going to re fire a couple, but I've decided to leave them as they are. What do you think? I know if I had more bisque ready, I would be doing a another barrel firing again today. What great fun and every piece is such a surprise.

If you missed it, check my holy smoke post on how to do your own barrel firing. Also check Amy, Becky, and Elaine's posts on barrel firings. So far they have had eight firings. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me. I've learned so much from reading other blogs, I'd like to share what I've learned too.

I'm going to try making some more pots with taller, flatter and/or smoother sides to show off the colors obtained in barrel firings. I think my derriere pot would be a good one for a barrel firing. I'm off to the studio to make more pots.

Barrel Firing Prep

The only time I can do a barrel firing safely here is in winter. The rest of the year the fire danger is too high. So I am preparing to do one within the next month. Here's the list of supplies I need for my barrel firing.

Barrel(s)
Dry Wood
Kindling
Straw
Newspaper
Wood Shavings and/or Sawdust

Seaweed
Rock Salt
Baking Soda
Copper Carbonate
Red Iron Oxide
Miracle Grow fertilizer
Dried Fruit peels
Copper Wire
Sisal Twine
Chore Boy Scrubbers
Extra Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil

Sponge
Soft Cloth
Nylon Brush
Paste Wax
Rubber Gloves

While I was at the coast last week, there was a storm the first day. The next morning I noticed a bunch of seaweed (kelp) had washed ashore so I gathered some. I also found some dry avocado wood which is a soft wood but the price was right. I am still looking for some dry hardwood which doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I'll be calling local cabinet shops in hopes of picking up some wood shavings and sawdust. Maybe they'll have some scrap wood. I'll get some straw from my local feed store. I suppose a farmer or two will contribute some dry manure.

I have James Watkins and Paul Wandless book on Alternative Kilns & Firing Techniques, but I found a couple of articles on the internet too. Ceramic Arts Daily has a great article Successful Barrel Firing by Paul Wandless. Follow the links on this page for some more information from James Watkins ceramics class.

Meanwhile I'm making various pots, then I'll bisque them in preparation for my barrel firing. I've also invited several potter friends to join in on the fun. Stay tuned for more as the month goes by.