Ceramic Artists and Friends are all invited - date to be announced - to a Barrel Firing. I am planning on having a wood fired barrel firing pot luck party here at my home as soon as the weather turns cool and damp enough to allow me to have an outdoor fire.
I have four small barrels - dimensions are about 3 feet tall and 24 inches wide. I'd like to find a larger barrel - a 55 gallon drum or two. My husband brought a large barrel home, but it has some type of solvent in it and would have been too dangerous to fire (it might explode) My smaller barrels are already steam cleaned.
I am reading Paul Wandless book about Alternative Kilns and Firings - learning all about pit and barrel firings.
Please let me know if you have any experience in this type of firing - basically a pit fire but it gets hotter in a barrel according to the book I am reading.
And if you have any dry firewood and/or kindling set it aside to bring along.
What fun. We did pit firings at a friends a couple of times. The group was game to test all sorts of techniques. Maybe we can get Jim Shepard to join us. He has much experience. I drop him an e-mail. Ann
Oh Ann, that would be wonderful if Jim Shephard would join us. Is he a member of this forum? I don't know him.
All I know is what I have read. But first hand knowledge is so much better. I live in the country, so as soon as a burn ban is lifted I want to organize and set a date. I bought some clay from Laguna Clay that is supposed to be the best stuff to survive these types of firings. I guess I should make a few items to get ready to fire with that type of clay.
I am game to test too - with four barrels so far - that's four different trials. For successes, I'll plant on repeat firings.
Hi Everyone, I finally just did my first barrel firing to work out the kinks before I invite anyone here. I think it went pretty well. I'd like to invite you all to one, but the only problem is - it has to be impromptu - because I have to call the air resources board early in the morning to see if it is a burn day.
So if you are interested in coming, please email me and we can discuss it. I used Cone 10 porcelain clay and Soldate 60 for my pieces that I just fired yesterday. You can see how I fired and photos of my pieces on my two blog posts here. It's really fun. I have all the ingredients all you need to do is bring your own bisqued pieces and we can fire them here. I live in Springville.
Please let me know if you are interested by emailing me - mtnstar@ocsnet.net. We could shoot for a Saturday, if that would be good, just let me know. Here are the posts of the process and pieces I did: