First Pit Firing
Leaving the studio and no longer having access to a wheel made me wonder—what can I do with clay at home? That question led me to handbuilding. I began to explore form and texture using the clay I had brought home. As I worked, many of the forms came spontaneously, guided by intuition. Soon, I started searching for nearby clay studios and was happy to find one downtown. I reserved studio time and got back on the wheel again. As my work began to accumulate, I found myself stuck on how I wanted to fire everything. The studio offered electric kilns for bisque and cone 6 firings. While most of my past work was fired in electric kilns, I was craving something more. That’s when I fell down the rabbit hole of pit firing.
The idea of firing my greenware in a pit excited me. I began collecting materials: I asked my parents to set aside fruit peels to dried them out instead of composting them, and pulled copper wire from storage to make flower shapes that I could wrap around pieces. I added sea salt to the mix, hoping for a splash of color. I decided to wrap the pieces in aluminum foil to help create more successful surface effects. With permission from my parents, we picked a spot on the outskirts of our garden for the pit. My dad helped me start the digging and got me some metal sheets to cover it. As I dug deeper, I noticed a change in the soil—and discovered wild clay! I was thrilled and set it aside to process later.
The pit ended up being about a foot and a half deep with a ledge to preheat the pieces. I gathered dried leaves, sticks, and split some wood we had stored for the fireplace. I started a small fire to warm the pieces, then, after about an hour, placed them into the pit and added more wood. I kept the fire going for 3–4 hours before covering the pit to let it cool overnight. The next morning, I eagerly uncovered the pit. Many of the pieces didn’t survive. I calculated about a 22% success rate. Despite the low yield, the successful pieces were beautiful: variations of reds and oranges, and even a faint flower imprint from the copper wire.
For my first pit firing, I consider it a huge step forward in my ceramic journey. It was experimental, exciting, and incredibly rewarding.
