Ceramic Process: The Pit-Fire

This is the pit-fire process. Ceramic work is created, and fired to bisque temperatures. Colorants and other additives are put on the ware for decoration, and it is placed into a pit dug in the ground. Pots and sticks are layered together, and the pile is set afire. Once the pit is filled with red-hot coals, the ware is reduced by covering the coals with wet leaves/foliage or pulverized horse poo. The work in allowed to cool for several days, retrieved, cleaned up and ready to share with the world!

Both song are by an amazing band called "Six Organs of Admittance"

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[spraypaint1000]

Pit firing is fun! Do you wax them once fired? Do they functionally hold water?

[WhiteCrowCeramics]

@spraypaint1000 I do wax them, I have also used clear acrylic spray to seal them as well. Pit fired pieces can never truly hold water functionally (by today's standards), unless the clay itself has been fired high enough to become vitrified. But a low-fire clay fired well has served as drinking and food vessels for thousands of years!

[nothernmonday]

Hello, thanks for uploading this video. After taking a course this summer I've been working alot making pots and figures, and then firing them in pits. I love some of the paterns and colours on the finished work, what chemicals did you add to the foil before burning and what sort of effects could I expect from each chemical? thanks

[WhiteCrowCeramics]

@nothernmonday Thanks for the watch, and I hope you enjoyed the video. I've tried many different things in the pit for different colors. Copper will give reds or blacks (depending if the local atmosphere is oxidizing or reducing. Iron will give tan-browns. Those are the only two sure-fire results. The rest is kind of up in the air. I've added many things though, including: banana peels (potassium), firing with beachwood (for the inherent minerals), horse crap (no joke), and that's about it.

[smogharbel]

thank you for sharing, this is a great video

[WhiteCrowCeramics]

@smogharbel

Thank you for watching! 

[nothernmonday]

@WhiteCrowCeramics I find my own clay in the forest and fields around my house, there is quite a lot of iron in the area so the clay is kinda red anyways. I suppose i'll just have to experiment. I really like to burnish my pieces to a high shine and then burn them black by adding woodchips/bark and pine needles to the fire then covering the whole thing with sand.

[artsandvich123]

@nothernmonday thanks so much for the tips and advice! I think i might have my friend help me do this! thanks!

[nothernmonday]

@artsandvich123 it doesn't have to be a pit at all. Here is how I do it.

I get the fire nice and hot, as the fire is burning I place my pots at the side to warm up, moving them closer and closer as they become hot, they end up inside the embers towards the end. Once the pots are very hot I check by licking my finger and touching them, if my spit boils they're ready to burn. I turn them upside down and stack wood around and on top of the pots. small stuff takes 15 mins to burn.

[WhiteCrowCeramics]

Arts, the pit can be basically any size you'd like. Pieces are put in the foil "saggars" as a way of creating a unique atmosphere for that particular piece. If you have no access to a kiln for even bisque firing, you may have to use a hardy type of clay, or be particularly careful firing--firing raw pieces is difficult and much more breaking is likely to occur...