The firing results.

This weekend we fired our clay sculpture. We didn't go with the plan to pit-fire it because of an exhibition that we wanted to go to later the evening, and pit-firing can be quite a long process. We built a fire around the head, that we gradually fed to cover the entire head. Instead of letting the  head cool down gradually, we took it right out of the fire (which was still piping hot) and basically hoped for the best by letting it cool down rapidly. We were a bit skeptical about that approach but it turned out fine in the end. 

Now, when pit-firing, you can add things to the mix in the fire, and these things, like banana peals, or salt, or sea weed, and the smoke, reacts with the clay to create different colours. And the possibilities are endless as the smoke is in motion so the marks are always unpredictable! The initial idea that day was to use no added materials, but we ended up sprinkling a little bit of coarse salt over the face, which stained the clay with little red spots and lighter, pinkish marks. 

The next sculptures will definitely be more refined and complete. But for a test run I think this really went well. But it's all a learning curve, so we'll see what happens. Here are some images of what went down... Hope you like it.

Lighting the fire with the head in the center.

The head removed from the hot coals of the fire.

The final result