Firing Pottery Without a Kiln (the old fashioned way)
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- Опубліковано 28 сер 2024
- Firing a bunch of pottery out in the desert of Arizona on a warm November day. I show how it is done and then I talk about what worked well and what needs improvement next time. Learn to fire pottery without a kiln, it is easier than you might think.
The large jar is formed in this video • MAKING A TONTO POLYCHR...
It is painted in this video • Decorating Polychrome ...
The mug was made in this video • Making a Round Mug - A...
Learn more about organic pottery paint in this video • The Mystery of Organic...
Learn all about primitive pottery firing techniques in my online masterclass "Outdoor Pottery Firing 101" available here ancientpottery...
\\ Lots more information including video based lessons are available on my website at ancientpottery...
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I've seen the Africans do it and they cover the pottery and wood with straws and sprinkle water on it to slow the burn. They've have almost zero failure rate. They also dip the pottery into soaked acacia barks to darkened them and it allows them to boil water in them. They do everything by hand and their pottery are of the highest quality I've seen.
Different cultures have different ways of doing it. Native Americans don't cover with straw or sprinkle water and they also have almost no breakage. There are many possible ways to get it done. Respect to all those around the world who are doing it in the old ways.
I like that you get just as excited at figuring out why something didn't work as expected as you get when it does work perfectly.
I have harvested my own clay from a riverbed and processed it to make pure clay. During spring break, I plan on living in the wilderness and firing my pottery to make all-natural dishes to cook and eat from. Primitive style!!!!
That's awesome.
@@AncientPottery Only issue is, I think it's low in silica and might not handle too high of temperatures when firing.
@@katsalbatora if you have an open, outdoor firing then you can adjust your temperature to fit your clay. You will need to do some experiments to find out what your clay can handle.
@@AncientPottery Yeah I plan on making a couple shot glasses first for experiments.
I am so glad to find you.You are a big inspiration and education for me. I have been wanting to do REAL Indian method pottery. I am 70 so thank you so much for helping me with my bucket list.
My pleasure 😊
Andy, thank you very much for taking the time to make these videos! They are very helpful and inspiring. Very enjoyable to watch!
Many thanks!
T
I love that mug. Minerals. Gotta love 'em.
Thanks!
I love how passionate you are and how constructive your criticism is upon yourself. Very good video.
Thanks
it's a pretty good day when even the failures are beautiful
That's true. It's all a part of the process.
This is one of my favorite YT channels. Ty for the great work.
Great, thanks so much.
As always, great video! Your narration through your own testing provides vicarious experimentation (and confirmation for those of us that have had similar experiences)! Keep up the good work!!
Thank you very much!
I love the investigation part. Of course the native people had a few hundred years to work out the details. It's great that you share what you learn. Learn from those mistakes!
Thank you, it's all a fun adventure to try to get in those ancient potter's heads.
What a stunning result on your pots. I love the red.
Thank you
I like how creative this is, how you are always experimenting, looking to better your craft.
That's really the fun of it for me. Trying new things, finding new materials, seeing how they work. Doing it again...
Great video! I’m working my way through your classes and loving them. Even my preschooler is learning from them and has been making and painting pukis for the last few days. Thanks!
Excellent! I am glad to hear that the classes are useful to you and your little one.
@@AncientPottery I do have a quick question - I'm using purchased clay until I can find some wild clay around here. If I plan to pit fire, should I add some temper to the store bought clay?
Good question. I have limited experience with store bought clay but I think that is probably a good idea, otherwise the thermal shock will ruin them in the fire. Perhaps raku clay would be a good choice to handle thermal shock.
@@AncientPottery Thank you! I’ll let you know what happens.
I absolutely love the content of your videos! Beautiful work!
Thank you so much 😀
Beautiful thank you for sharing your art. I know it’s like a part of us and have come to completely understand the value of that part of us. As I embark upon my journey in Pottery I do so greatly appreciate all the help. You stay blessed.
Thank you so much.
This was such a beautiful video!! Thank you for sharing your journey with us. I had a few questions -
- Did you bring the wood into your burning area or harvest it there?
- Do you set the pottery in rocks above the coals or directly on them?
- How do you know the fire is hot enough to fully cure the pottery?
- Are these food safe after being fired in the fire?
Thank you so much for all of your help! I’m excited to try this for myself 🙏🏽
Thank you Elle
1. I collect the wood in the area where I am firing usually.
2. On rocks above eat coals to encourage better air flow around the pots.
3. Experience tells me how hot is hot enough. But I sometimes use a thermocouple to measure temps.
4. "Food safe" is a funny term because what does it mean? Our ancestors ate off of earthenware for millennia, and somehow we got here. Yet nowadays if it's not glazed it's not considered "food safe". My pottery is not glazed but is earthenware, it would have been considered food safe by our ancestors, but your local health department may have other ideas.
The local “health department” are more frightful than troglodytes though... so there’s that.
Pasteur and the rest of the Mammonists...
You're very brave taking them off the still hot fire. I like my fire die before removing so they cool very slowly
It's just like raku, you add extra temper to the clay to ensure it won't crack from the thermal shock.
Incredible work and thanks for sharing your knowledge
You are welcome. Thanks!
I'm so glad I found your channel its wonderful! I wish i had a place to fire pottery, maybe one day!
Thanks for watching!
This is fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing this. I hope hope get to try this one day. 😀
You should!
that mountain mug looks awesome!
Thanks!
I looked at this one it's from Greece beautiful pottery at the bottle it had shadow of ships. I wish, I could show you a picture.
Andy ; WONDERFUL good fire information and GREAT paint information, and I can see you have been working hard on your pottery building, thanks so much for sharing What you have work so hard and long to get.. it is a little bit cool in Idaho 37 high 14 low.. ROB
Thanks Rob. Temperatures are still a bit high here for firing, I would rather fire when the temp is in the 50s because it is hot work.
@@AncientPottery to cold most day's with the wind to fire in Idaho. ROB
Your pot's are very impressive 💯
So nice of you
In my experiences firing pottery I have difficulty making water proof vessels. I have attempted to make hotter firings to solve it. How well do your pots hold water when using this type of firing? Do the walls of the pots "sweat" the water through? Can they hold water for several days?
Yes, they do "sweat" the liquid away. There are things you can do to help seal the pot which I plan on covering in an upcoming video.
Très beau travail. J'aime beaucoup. Petit clin d'œil de France.
Merci
I LOVED watching this! ❤ Can you cook over fire in these.
Yes, check out this video ua-cam.com/video/sZzEp3YbChU/v-deo.htmlsi=3DvXpD_uqO5_9Ty-
@@AncientPottery Thank you! Because of you I learned how to harvest clay from my yard and begin making small pottery pieces. 🎊
You rock Andy
Thanks!
Ive been giving this a go in a metal bin in my garden, wrapping the pots in foil to protect my slip painting and placing them in a cake tin too, nothing has broken yet (and im having great fun!) but the last batch didnt seem to get as hot as the foil didnt disintegrate and was very carbon stained, you mention "burning off the carbon" if i reheat them will the black burn off?
Yes, you can always re-fire the pots to burn off that carbon.
Your a beast Andy. Good work
Thanks 👍
Could you cover the fire with sand to stop the firing and the oxygen getting in at the end stages ? Thanks for the uploads btw, I am really enjoying your videos.and work,
Thank you. It would take a lot of sand to smother an above ground fire like this. It is much more easily done to a pit fire as seen in this video ua-cam.com/video/KibwQWaHrZQ/v-deo.html
@@AncientPottery cool so you already done it, I love the uploads thanks. Here’s one I took of pottery in the museum of London, not really your style, but I love the medieval pottery.
ua-cam.com/video/QvFjac_Uba4/v-deo.html
@@wanderingpots That's great, thanks
Loved this, thanks!
Your welcome
Could you make a tutorial of how you made the designs on the pottery? Or if you have a video on that, point me in that direction?? They’re beautiful!
I have videos of making paint and making paint brushes but I have not made a video yet showing how to paint.
Thank-you.
You're welcome
Good day Andy how are you? Aris from Sparta, Greece🙌
Hi, Sparta, what a wonderful place with so much history
Thanks for taking the time to produce this content, Andy. There is nothing like this in Canada. Question (and excuse me if I am being completely obtuse) do you bisque fire these prior to the glaze firing? Thanks very much.
The pots fired here were green ware and southwestern pottery is traditionally single fired and no glaze is used. Thanks
@@AncientPottery Super, thank you. I just bought your book and look forward to the journey. Side question: do you know of any info resources for pottery of southern Ontario/ Maine areas? Ojibwe or Iroquois? If no, all good, great vid series. Cheers from Canada.
Wealth of knowledge
Thank you
Beautiful pottery , lots of sprit from the ancients , and very good video of the firing process.
What’s your best guess on the temperature reached in the firing ?
Thanks
Probably about 750 C. Thanks
Amazing videos, thank you.
Thanks for watching.
I recently tried it myself but it didn't got hot enough and when I try to wash off all the Ash I destroyed my pots. 🤦♂️😅
Look at it as a learning experience and keep trying. That is how I got where I am.
If the pot is glowing red that's when u know it's fired all the way
@@hamburgerklay7679 Be wary that clay may "melt" during firing if iron-rich.
Trying my first firing now in my smoker firebox. Dallas clay is a bit hard to work with so if this breaks i may be done for a while.
Awesome video
Thanks!
Beautiful!
Thank you!
I read an instruction that clay is suppose to be heated at about 1000deg for 8 hours or so .
Why ?
So just simple fire is enough ?
Can i use coal ?
For how long should i keep the clay inside ?
If you are completely new at this topic you should at first check out the primitive technology UA-cam channel( just the videos about pottery) it's the basic of the basic, but that's how I begun understanding how clay works.
8 hours is far more than is necessary. I fire pottery in about 20 minutes this way and my top temperature is around 750 C. Coal works fine and will get you a lot hotter than that.
Sooo informative!
Thanks!
what is this band you play in some of your videos? i like them they are chill sounding
I get my music at Epidemic Sound and pick out new music for each video, nit sure who the artist was for this video as I made it a long time ago.
What happens if you put 50% plus of grog or sand in? Will it help to stop cracks and breakages. Chad zuber must have so much natural 'grog' in because I can see so many specks after hes fired
Great solid content. How do you make your mug able to hold liquid? It seems that it would be porous at relatively low firing temperatures.
It is porous but not terribly, it weeps a little but is quite usable. Most of this sort of pottery is only used for decorative purposes these days anyway.
Wonderful informative video! I live up in Canada and our winters get very cold. Do you think its possible to do in the winter (roughly -35 c)
Yes. I don't have much experience firing in cold weather because I live in Tucson. But my friend Wes in Minnesota made a video about this last winter. ua-cam.com/video/i_WHtHX5_jU/v-deo.html
😊👍
cool review
Ha,ha. I’m driving a 2017 F-150 white four door. If anyone sees me out in the desert, they’ll just think I’m you. (Although you have the one with all the chrome and I’m driving the all black trim…)
There are a million of those white F-150s around.
You are mentioning paint on the pots. What kind and brand of paint?
Natural mineral and organic paints that I make myself. Check this out ua-cam.com/play/PLxjk09ZJzrlvtM-FCcmX97pOJHP2zxAXy.html
How long do you fire for? Is there a rule of thumb eg., size to time?
It depends more on the type of pottery being fired. Sometimes 15 minutes, sometimes an hour.
in another video of yours, you had mentioned you preheated your clay bowls in the oven. can you tell me please at what temp and for how long? thank you !!
The goal of preheating is to drive off all moisture from the clay. So keep it below the point at which water boils, 200 degrees F. and leave it there for at least a half hour.
Combien d'heures pour la cuisson ?
I’m wondering, could you us a barbecue pit, like a Weber kettle pit, for firing pottery, or would the temperature be too much for it?
maybe, I haven't tried it but it would probably work
Been watching videos about primitive pottery and ways to fire without kiln. Thanks for your experiments. Very interesting.
I've been thinking of making some basic clay pots to burn stuff in them. No food or water, they'd serve only to contain a bonfire. Do you think I can get away without firing the pots?
Sorry, I am having trouble following you. you want to build a bonfire inside of a pot? That seems like it would require an enormous pot. Am I misunderstanding?
@@AncientPottery The pot would be about 14-15 inches large for 3 inches in height. I guess you can consider it more like a tray. I don't want to make a big fire. I just want to use it to burn small things in it. Papers, leaves, coals, etc.
@@little_dandelionwhy don't you just burn the fire outside the pot?
Something I do not under stand with this method. With the size & short time of your
Burn how can that work, when kiln fires are
very hot a much longer fire & cool down?
How long do you let your pots cool after firing? I often get cracks that appear after firing, some hairline others in a “honeycomb” crazing pattern, is this a temper issue or thermal shock?
Yes, I have seen similar things. The answer is to add more temper to your clay. This type of firings produces a lot of thermal stress to the pots so you need to temper your clay appropriately.
Is it necessary to use hardwood? I can't find anything on Google and I just found you this morning. Very interesting channel.
It is only important that the wood turns rather clean. I know people that use all kinds of wood, even old pallets.
@@AncientPottery thank you.
So are you letting the pots dry up pretty much before firing them after you make them?
Yes, they have to be completely dry before firing.
@@AncientPottery Ok thank you!
Wonderful to watch. how long do your pots stay in the fire? do you keep adding wood or is it all done with just that one stack of wood? Thank you for your videos.
Usually it’s just pile the wood over the pottery, let it go and that’s it. I recently had to add some more wood to get my pottery a bit hotter though, so it depends. I have a new firing video coming out this Wednesday.
Love your videos! What are you using for color? Black or white? Do you have a video explaining it? Thank you✨🙏🏻
Different things. White clay is used for white. Manganese is used for mineral black, sometimes organic paint is made from boiled down plants. Red is iron oxides. Sometimes copper carbonates are used for blacks too. Pigments is kind of a complicated subject, I have a whole class on natural pottery pigments, you can see it at this link ancientpottery.how/courses/natural-pottery-paints-slips-and-pigments/
I have moist clay x 15 cone 5-10 will this firing technique work on this clay very new to this..😕
Most likely it will but add a ton of grog or sand or diatomaceous earth, some form of temper to help it withstand the thermal shock that comes with this type of firing.
If you don’t mind me asking, where about dare ya doing this (just state Ish). Just wonder because I’m in California and the fire dangers and restrictions have me wondering
I’m in Arizona and the fire restrictions usually prevent me from firing between about April to July.
How long would you say the fire burned for once you got it going?
This was over a year ago so my memory is kind of hazy. But most of my pottery firings are between about 12 minutes and a half hour.
what kind of clay are you using i wanna try it myself so someone please tell me
I dig my own clay
really how is that?
@@AncientPottery
Will that kind of clay crack if it gets to hot in the fire. Because mine are fine through the preheat but normally brake in the fire. Unless it’s the clay I am using idk
Add more temper
Will do. Hopefully that takes care of it. Thanks for the info love your videos to u actually got me started doing it lol it’s super fun to play around with
What if you put it in an outdoor pizza oven will it work the same
Doubtful, pizza ovens almost never get hot enough to fire pottery
Why didn't you bury them after like most people choose to do?
Because I am wanting to oxidize my clay to create those bright reds. If I fired in a pit the clay would be starved for oxygen and the colors would not come out as bright.
Is Bentonite clay usable for pottery if tempered properly?
In my experience, no. It has a very high shrinkage rate so that if you added enough temper to keep the pottery from breaking when dry it would be possibly over 50% sand (or whatever you are using for temper).
Have you got a book on these techniques?
No, I need to write a book but haven't even started yet. I do have an online class though ancientpottery.how/courses/open-above-ground-pottery-firing/
what kind of colour did you use to create the motives?
The need is red ochre, the white is white clay, the black is organic paint made from yucca fruit.
For how long time did you fire each my friend ?
Maybe 15 minutes
How long should you let it burn?
Just until the wood burns to coals, maybe 20 minutes or a half hour.
Hi i love your videos. Every time I’ve tried to burn my pottery in a fire, it has broken. Do you have any tips to prevent that?
Preheat your pottery and use plenty of temper in your clay. I hope that helps. Have you seen this video yet? ua-cam.com/video/sAERJi3XRoY/v-deo.html
@@AncientPottery
Hí Andy, what is temper ?
Is that a type of paint you mix with the clay?
@@sharlekviki temper is non-plastic material added to clay, things like sand or grog. ua-cam.com/video/uZZdLLCO8Iw/v-deo.html
How long did you fire it for?
Maybe 20 minutes tops.
Can a wood stove be used to fire clay?
I would say no, but I do know people who have fired in wood stoves, fireplaces, even chiminea. So I guess it is possible but I have never done it so can't offer any advice.
@@AncientPottery Thank you so much for answering! I began dorodango about a year ago and came across your channel looking to learn about finding/processing wild clay. Now I've been bitten with your pottery bug and am going to HAVE to do your 10 piece challenge. It is good to broaden one's field of learning. Thanks!
Have you bisque fired the work before this?
No, this was all green ware going in.
Awesome results. I'm currently doing a ceramics degree and I'm loving your channel as I'm very drawn to ancient techniques 😁
Thanks!
Thanks to you. I very much appreciate people like yourself sharing your knowledge.
what paint do you use
Hard question to answer because I use many things. I think in this video I was using organic paint, boiled down plants.
Can i do this in an old bbq? Coal?
I would think you could do it in a BBQ. Coal will burn a lot hotter and longer than wood so be prepared.
@@AncientPottery thank you. Appreciate you.
Is it strange that I like the worn out paint look more?
I’ve heard that when fired this way they’re not safe to use for food and beverages
Is that true?
Totally not true, I eat on my pottery and I know others who do the same. Through my UA-cam channel I have met many people in other countries such as Mexico and India where people frequently eat from unglazed ceramics. In New Mexico it is a tradition to cook beans in unglazed micaceous clay pots.
Clay type used?
Its a wild clay that I collect and process myself, pretty heavily grogged.
How much grog percentage ?
extra heat hardened
Do you have special permission to have fire outdoors?
I don’t need special permission. I would sure hate to live somewhere where I had to get permission to make a fire.
Talk about survival skills.
Yes, thanks
✨🧸✨ 🔥👶🔥 👏🙏