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Pit Fire Pottery

Here are some more recent works of pitfired ceramics. Pieces range in height from twenty-four inches and over. All pieces are made from either white or red stoneware clay bodies, bisque-fired cone 018, then pitfired.

This hand-coiled sculpture that stands about twenty-seven inches tall. The form was coiled, shaped with a scraper, then burnished with a silver spoon after letting it dry a bit. The sculpture was then wrapped heavily in seaweed and sprinkled with copper carbonate and iron oxide, and rock salt. The colors came out great.

Here is another view of the pitfired sculpture. The dramatic reds were produced from the fumes of the copper during the firing.

This vase is one of my favorite pieces. This vase was made from Amador clay, which fires as a red stoneware. I carved a rope motif after burnishing the body of the vase. The combination of seaweed and dung produced rich blacks and orange-ochre swirls.