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primitive pottery making

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David_Daugherty:
I made an attempt at crafting a bowl primitive style, didn't quite turn out like I had envisioned.  I mixed clay, crushed clam shell, and hay.  Added water to get the consistency I wanted. Then rolled out pieces of clay and formed rings. began stacking and molding the rings to the form of a small bowl.  Let this dry for several days then attempted to fire it in my patio fireplace.  I think this is where I went wrong.  I don't think I reached the heat temperature I needed.  Has anyone else tried this? And if so any advice would be great.  Thanks David.

Pat B:
David, I'm no potter but I think you have to get all the moisture out of the pot before fireing it. Any internal moisture will turn to steam and break the pot.

M-P:
David,   In order for clay to turn into ceramic, real ceramic ( not just a pot shaped piece of kitty litter) you need to reach a temperature of 1000-2400 degrees Fahrenheit.  The exact temperature will depend on the composition of the clay you used.   The formed pot has to be dry and the heat has to be gradually increased to the proper temperature to avoid cracking.   A back yard fireplace is not going to be sufficient.  One has to wonder how the whole art of ceramics ever got started.   Obviously it did get figured out.   Moreover the people doing it new how to create the firing that would work with the clay they had.  I took ceramic classes for awhile and found it great fun.   We once tried making a small wood fired kiln, but even with experienced ceramics artists helping the kiln didn't reach a high enough temp for our high fire clay.   
Why did you add the hay to your clay?   It's a fine thing for holding together sun dried bricks, but it will burn out of any fired ceramic and leave holes = leaky pots.
I think what you want to research is "pit firing".   As you can imagine , first you dig a big hole in the ground.   Then you fill it with dried "green" pots and cover with a lot of fuel.   Then you start a fire and keep it burning for 12-24 hours and let everything cool slowly.   I've never been part of a pit fire, so my explanation leaves a lot of gaps to fill.  Ron

David_Daugherty:
Thank you both for the replies.  Yes I did some research on pit firing and think I can get it to work.  I'll let ya'll know how it turns out this time.  Thanks again, David.

Lone500:
it is possible to fire it in a back yard fire. from what i understand you build a ring fire around it and move it in as to gradually heat the pot up and get rid of excess moisture slowly. then you build it up and get it really really hot.

takes a lot of wood from what i understand.

read about it in one of John McPherson books.

ive been hankering to try pottery making as well. from what i understand a lot of clay just doesnt work well for pottery. would love to learn more about all of it.

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