- Building the bed of coals to begin the firing. I have set the dried pots around the fire to warm them prior to placing into the pit. These pots will be fired under sherds (large pieces on the left of image).
- Sherds are pieces of other pots that are used to cover the pieces being fired. There are a couple of purposes for sherds. They can be used to cover all the pieces in a kiln to help retain heat, or they can be used to cover only some pieces to protect those specific pieces from coming into contact with the coals of the fire and having carbon transferred into the clay body of the pot.
- Once the primary fire has burned down to coals, I place some of the sherds down directly on the coals. I then place my warmed pots on these sherds.
- After placing all the pieces onto the sherds, I place the remaining sherds over the top to protect the pots.
- Here, I have begun to rebuild the fire around the pots and sherds.
- I am using hardwood charcoal and seasoned hardwoods to build the fire back up.
- I completely covered the items and continued to add wood until I had a very hot fire.
- After burning for about 2.5 hours, I let the fire burn down.
- The pot seen near the center of the image is a piece made from the commercial clay I use for my other pottery uses. There were a few of these placed in the fire to do some testing.
- Being slightly impatient, I uncovered the pots while there was still a good deal of heat in the fire.
- The pot on the lover left of center is made of a commercial earthenware clay. This pot is one I am using as an exemplar for color and tone.
- At this point, the pots all look to have fired evenly and with fair success.
- There are also a couple of medallions that were fired.
View of one of the finished pots. Color is very near to that of a pot made from commercially available clay that was fired at the same time.
I have used this pot to hold water while working on other pieces of pottery.
Working with Clay 