Smoke fired pottery
I became interested in smoke fired pots around 2000 and decided to concentrate on producing individual pots using this method of decoration, and to sell through galleries.
The Process
Each pot begins as a shallow press moulded, thrown or coiled base which
is centred onto a wooden bat with a bead of clay. This is then placed
onto a home-made banding wheel on which the pot is built using extruded
coils. When leather hard the pot is scraped smooth and burnished using
a variety of knife handles and spoons.
The bisque firing is at 900°C, any pots that are to have lustre
decoration are glazed with a lead sesquicilicate based glaze.
I use this as it matures at 960°C and leaves the unglazed areas
porous enough to accept carbon during the smoking process. As my pots
are either decorative or non-functional, the problems associated with
lead glazes and certain foodstuffs do not arise. Metallic lustres are
painted onto the glazed areas and fired to 750°C.
Smoking takes place inside a dustbin that has 10mm holes in its sides
at regular spacing.
The pots are placed inside and covered with sawdust. A fire is lit
on the sawdust and allowed to turn to charcoal before the flames are
extinguished when the lid is put on. A metal flue with a damper has
been riveted to the lid and gives a degree of control as it burns.
The holes in the side of the bin also serve this purpose, some being
plugged with clay for more carbonisation or left open if a flash of
oxidation on an area of pot is desired. The smoking takes about twelve
hours, when cool the pots are cleaned and polished with marbie wax.
Smoking pots creates quite a bit of smoke that can be a nuisance to
neighbours by blowing into open windows and over washing. To overcome
this and to be more environmentally responsible I undertook various
experiments using black slip and underglaze black colour. These were
airbrushed onto the pots before the burnishing process and worked very
well. I produced quite a few pots this way before I stopped making
smoked pottery.