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!

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.