Steampunk in Clay: The Fantastical Amazingness that is Pit Firing

I've attended my first ever pit fire party on Tuesday night.

Lindsey (left), me (center), and Paola (right) hanging together at Vicente's studio during the pit fire party!

To be honest, I was quite worried about what I'd write today. But my professor, Vicente Garcia, was kind enough to invite us to his studio so the upper level ceramics classes can fire a few of our pieces in his pit fire.

Can I haz ur studioz?

For the record, I want a studio space like his when I grow up.

When we arrived, the pit fire was already built with fire brick and a steel grate covering the top and the short sides of the structure. He assigned us the job of finding small sticks. He'd started a fire, but we needed to throw small sticks into the fire so it could burn faster and build bigger.

He then proceeded to toss in his old dead Christmas tree from last Christmas.

After building the fire a bit bigger, we then went inside his studio to learn the different methods of how to finish a piece before we put it into the fire. We could've just put our pieces in there, but we could also cover these bisque pieces with copper mesh and slip containing things like copper, steel, or cobalt salts. There was also a really cool copper wash we could have dipped our pieces in.

We lined the finished pieces on the wall of the pit, and when the fire was ready for them, we put them carefully inside the open flames with steel tongs.

The palate burning in the pit fire

We gathered bigger branches and also threw in at least three palates to keep the fire burning hot. The pieces were glowing like embers at the bottom of the fire. And what amazing color the fire was turning! Due to all of the different salts we added to prepare our pieces, we saw greens, blues, even purples burning away with the yellows, reds, and oranges. It was a burning rainbow!

You can see some of our pieces, partially on fire. The chemicals we've prepared them with are giving the fire a greenish glow!

While they were 'cooking', we all took a break and ordered pizza (we were there for a good while). After that, it was time to toss in the fun-colored salts to make the bare pieces pretty! And even though the fire got lower, the blues became more intense, and we saw more purples. Is it bad that I think I was more excited about the colors in the fire? But truth be told, I think all ceramists are secretly pyros. I know we all were that night!

When the fire died down, we needed to quench it. First we smothered it with damp wood chippings. Then we took the hose to cool things down. We dug the chips out again and took our pieces out of it.