Ceramics outside of the studio can be a challenge. Well, the sculpting is fine. We are just talking mud after all. But how to cook it? Technically, you don't have to heat it up.... it's just that the hotter you get it, the more water evaporates out and then the meltable materials inside your clay will melt and fuse. Ultimately, the hotter you take your ceramics, the more strong they become. Of course, they will shatter more when they brake (many tiny fragments instead of a clean, big breaks) as they go up to hotter and hotter cone firings.
So you can make ceramics at home, but unless you have a proper kiln, firing is an issue. I used to use a local art center for firing my pieces but I have been wanting to do things more and more at home lately. I mean, why can't I wake up, open a beer, and make a set of dessert dishes?
And then I started thinking about smoke firings. I had done them at school and in principle they were easy. It isn't a particularly 'hot' firing and you have a bunch of organic material that incinerates to color the ceramic in lieu of glaze. In fact, this is really the oldest, thus easiest, type of firing. It just uses a modified fire pit in the ground. Granted, the finished pieces are more decorative than functional. They are more fragile than the hotter fired pieces and they can be more easily damaged by water/liquids. But it sounds like the making of a project.
1. a high grog, low fire clay
3. FIRE!!! muahahaha... I am going to use a Weber Kettle (you could use a hole in the ground or a metal trash can), some junk mail, some briquettes, and anything that I decide would be fun to burn.
I hand built this vase a while ago and I have been letting it dry out. It is a continuation of a 'sea form' series that I have been working on. This one is an abstraction of a sea urchin shell. I have been waiting for the dry weather of summer before trying to fire this. There is just too much humidity in the Pacific Northwest for a complete dry-out during much of the year. It should be noted that water left in the clay will cause catastrophic explosions and breakage when it expands during firing. Air bubbles aren't a problem, it is the water left in the air bubbles. In fact, I have a friend in New Mexico who has fired hollow, clay orbs without any problem; the desert just allows for things to dry out very quickly and thoroughly. So I am now confident that this vase is totally dry and ready for phase two.
This all should make for a fun weekend. I will do another post which will fill you in on the firing process and my choice for combustibles. Hopefully, I won't have to explain why I ruined it.
Image notes: The top two images are of hand built, sea forms, from my reliquary series. The first is for a fish and the second is for a sea sponge. After they were fired, gold leaf was applied. Then the third image is of the sea urchin vase, which I am hoping not to destroy in the next few days. We'll see kids, we'll see.
You can get your clay from big chains (Blick is my favorite of the big guys), but there is almost certainly a local source, no matter where you are. If you can buy local, it really is cheaper. The clay is pretty inexpensive, but it is heavy so the shipping charges are the most expensive part of the purchase. Plus you can get some local 'dirt' in your clay, which can often give you a more unique coloring. And since people like buying local with their ceramics, it would be a selling point to be as regional as possible. This is who I use:
http://www.georgies.com/
More on smoke firings:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1579904556/potterybydesi-20/002-2985700-3888814?creative=327641&camp=14573&link_code=as1
Of course, you can also do a few google searches and get the gist of it.
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