dancingpebbles

I have been meaning to post about pottery for quite a while. I recently participated in a saggar firing workshop in upstate New York, and that seems as good an excuse as any to go ahead with it.

I also practiced taking decent photos of my pots, so that’s another reason.

So here is a long post on both the pots and the workshop.

Probably my favorite of the pots I took to the saggar firing.

I also liked how this delicate little pot came out.

This one also had some nice coloration.

So these are some examples of the pots that came out of the saggar firing.

And here’s the workshop:

The pots we brought to the workshop. How pretty and white they are! Various white stoneware clays, bisque fired, most of them were burnished.

Brenda was our fearless leader. Here she explains the process to us.

Gathered around the saggar kiln, loading the pots.

Here is the saggar when it is halfway loaded. The bottom layer is sawdust, then a layer of pots was added, along with some chemicals and combustibles. Some of us encouraged more flashing and pattern on our pots by binding chemical-soaked straw or other organic materials around them. We also used copper and iron wire, rope and twine for various effects.

Fully loaded. About three layers of pots, with more straw and chemicals scattered around.

Here Brenda explains the gas burner’s operations, and how she intends to fire the kiln. It was about an hour of low heat warmup, then gradually increasing heat over the next five or six hours until cone 06. By the next morning the kiln was cool enough to unload.

After the firing. Same pots, but now they’re in color. Note the leftover ash from the combustibles. You don’t want to breathe this.

A finished pot. The color comes from iron. the strong dark line is an impression from copper wire. Note the gloves. When we started unloading the pots were almost too hot to touch.

This is our happy group with our newly fired pots.

And here are some of the finished pots up closer.

The final step is waxing the pots with pastewax so that they shine with a soft glow. Here is Brenda’s demonstration on one of her own pots.

Here are some of the finished results in her gallery. You can find her at www.bluemoonclay.com