A lovely-ish Sunday in spring called for some frivolity, so we took a break from fencing and fired some clay. First firing with the birthday barrel.

Several weeks ago we made a batch of small clay things.

Drying slowly in freezing temps.  Notice the darker color of the figure on the left in the back. That one was not dry enough yet. — Drying slowly in freezing temps. Notice the darker color of the figure on the left in the back. That one was not dry enough yet.

Then we made a small firing can (technical term is a "sagger", pronounced with a long a) out of a one gallon tin can fitted with a paint can lid. (Paint cans are made from plastic these days.) I used a 3/8" drill bit to make the holes.

I scavenged these from the hillside Clyde used for a dumping ground. Beautification on multiple levels.

Then we started a fire in the bottom of the barrel, to make a layer of coals and to warm the bricks.

Fire. A good time on a chill day. We made the fire near an old brush pile-easy access to small, dry wood and more beautification by getting rid of the brush pile.

Once there was a sustainable fire going, Michael loaded some of the drier looking pieces in the small can with holes inside the 5 gallon can without holes.

We used the small can due to the delicate nature of the forms. If we were making stronger forms, such as thrown bowls, we could dispense with the 1 gallon bucket. We also don't mind serendipitous marks you get when the reducing agent touches the clay.

Small can inside large can inside barrel.

The next stage involved slowly building up the fire around the 5 gallon can to bring the clay up in temperature, slowly driving out any remaining moisture and altering the chemical composition of the clay (exorcising hydrogen bonds). Michael then delicately placed the lid on the 5 gallon can (slightly singeing his arm hair), and we kept the fire to the top of the can for about 10 minutes.

Once the can was well warmed (about 500° F--if the pots weren't in a sagger, you would see them begin to turn dark--) we filled the barrel with small, dry branches from the brush pile, which burned quick and HOT.

The finishing touch was to get something that would burn slowly and smokily around the pots. We happened to have the straw from our chicken coop at hand.

Must be a better way to get the lid of the 5 gallon bucket off without removing it from the barrel.  We will figure it out for next time. — Must be a better way to get the lid of the 5 gallon bucket off without removing it from the barrel. We will figure it out for next time.

And voila! Clay things!

Total firing time from pots in the sagger to pots on the table was about one hour.