This was a really fun experiment – it’s nice to be able to finish a piece outside of school.
Knowing the size limitations of my fireplace I made a bunch of fun little vases of different shapes. I gave a few some wee faces, just for my own entertainment.
After letting these dry in the studio over night, I popped them in my domestic oven at 100 degrees for about 3 hours. I was worried about them exploding in the fire (which has happened to me before) so maybe left them in there longer than actually needed.
Forgot to take a photo of this next step, but I wrapped them in corn husks, banana peel and sea salt, then wrapped that in a tinfoil saggar. Then I popped this into an old tin can filled with wood chips and sawdust, then into the unlit fire.
Then I let it burn all day!
A lot of black, which I think was due to the sawdust, but some cool little swirls and a few orangey blobs! I will refire these I think, with just banana peels and salt, and see if I can get some of the carbon to burn off. Also will try burnishing a couple of the other pieces and get them fired too, next time it’s cold enough for a fire!
Devon Smith Ceramics 