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Pit firing at Dillon Beach

Shortly after I joined the group at Sebastopol Gallery I was chatting with our two ceramic artists, Chris Boyd and Connie Robeson, at one of the gallery receptions. They were talking about an upcoming pit firing, and Connie was grousing about having to use commercial sawdust. “It’s just too uniform,” she complained. “You need hardwood shavings, really? I’ve got loads!” I was delighted to find out that there was a need for the stuff I was shoveling out of my shop by the truckload. They were delighted to find out there was a nearby source for the fuel material they needed. And so I went along to my first pit firing to see what this was all about…

Yep, I’ve got shavings all right… There’s only so much mulching a person can do.

At the beach, we dig a big shallow hole.

Add sacks and sacks and sacks of shavings. The mix of different woods and different sizes of shavings produces a lot of variety in the flame, which is what they want.

The ceramic pieces have been burnished and lightly bisque-fired. This is a special clay that works well with low firing temperatures. The pieces get nestled down into the shavings.

The greenish dust is a copper compound, and I can’t remember whether it’s copper chromate or copper sulfate. It helps produce the rose color that comes through on some of the pieces. Or maybe the black… I’ll have to check on that.

The next ingredient is dried seaweed. The mineral content of the seaweed also affects the flame, and thus the color of the finished pieces.

One of the things I especially loved about this process was seeing the shapes of the pieces partially revealed under the layers.

Mmmm, pie! Connie swears that cowpies add a lot of color to the firing. They certainly added a lot to the atmosphere in her car.

It’s a bit like playing Twister. You have to carefully build a substantial fire pile over a nest of fragile ceramic pieces.

Juuust a few more twigs…

Add some paper in the crevices.

Houston, we have ignition!

I always enjoy watching fires. This one was especially absorbing due to its ferocity and size. I took almost a hundred pictures just of the flames and the fire as it progressed.

At this point we all stood back and just watched it go.

Some of the shapes were lovely.

Slowly subsiding.

Every stage of the fire was beautiful.

Somewhere in here we took a break for a very nice picnic lunch.

As the fire died down and the ashes began to settle, the shapes of the pottery started to emerge. The colors continue to develop for quite a while at this stage, so we just watched as it kept settling.

Here you can see that the lower curve where the pot was nestled down into the wood shavings has gone quite black, and the flow of the fire across the rest of the surface has created a wash of soft colors.

Connie makes these beautiful little sculptural heads, and I loved seeing these faces serenely sleeping in the ruins of the fire.

Here’s another. Different place in the fire, different color. You never know what you’re going to get with a pit firing, which is what makes a good pit-fired piece so special.

After the fire has had a long time to cool, the pieces are very, very carefully picked out of the ashes and set in the hot sand to continue cooling.

Even at this point, the colors will change. It’s important to avoid handling the surface too much until the color has fully developed. After that, the piece can be waxed and the color will stay put.