First Barrel Firing

Well, I did it. Saturday was my first barrel firing and it was a bunch of fun. I was invited to join Becky, John, Elaine, Minke and others in the adventure of seeing what would happen by putting pieces into a barrel and setting the barrel on fire. I have tons to learn about all this, but am encouraged by my first two pieces.

How did all those colors and designs appear? To begin, I covered the rim of one of the bowls with copper scrubbies and put some scrapings from that in the center.

Used seaweed that smelled on the other.

Look-- This is pre- barrel firing... as if they are eggs in a nest. The two bowls are mine. I really like the colors. This is my favorite pic. You can see the different materials used to cover the pieces... newspaper, seaweed, cord soaked in copper carb, banana peels, etc... Miracle gro is in there too in blue along with sawdust.

The bowl on the right with the seawood in it is mine and then I wrapped it as if a gift with the copper wire. Great colors in the pic. Becky gave me tips on all this and they all let me graciously use their materials to cover my pieces.

This was all so unpredictable as to what the finished product would look like which was half of the fun.

Great time with friends. I even made a few stamps to use on future pieces while we were waiting as this took over 6 hours for the pieces to fire and cool down. In the waiting, Becky's husband surprised us and brought us mocha frappes from starbucks. Grace everywhere. Only downside is that it was hot. Becky, John, Minke (a very strong woodcutter too), and Elaine are great teachers-- I'm new at all this and have much more to figure out.

After we loaded the barrel (before lighting it) It was fun to join Minke and John in paying homage to the kiln gods as they call it. Seemed like the perfect time to ask for blessing for all that we had done.

Now, here is the 'Model T' barrel cooling down. We fired two barrels, and my pieces were both in the 'Model T'. We became impatient waiting for the pottery to cool (bringing it out too quickly can cause it to crack), so we went out to dinner. :) On the left side at the bottom, hopefully you can see the top of the sculpture peeking out over the rest (clicking on the pic to enlarge it helps)... it's the piece that Minke created. Gorgeous... the barrel fired woman is below.

Below are some of the finished pieces.. the three in the back are Elaine's handbuilding pieces.. she can make one in just minutes!

This pic below reminds me of christmas time as we 'opened the presents'... It was fun, fun, fun to get the pieces out with Becky... Christmas in July! :)

Here most of the birds have found each other again... and it's getting dark! The birds are Becky's and all are cooling down a bit together. My two bowls show some color and more color came out with putting some Murphy's oil soap on the pieces (I think that's what it was).

Gotta do some more reading to prep for the next barrel firing.

Am bummed I'll miss it. At least it'll be great to be at Holden Village instead. This is all just as great as raku firing.... :) Yet so different.....

How peaceful this all was... I'm so blessed.