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As promised some photographs of the pit firing with Morag MacIness and Joanna Still in the olive groves of Malaga province. The two gals worked for four days together, Joanna working alongside Morag on her crazy dogs in extremely high temperatures. The pit was dug some months earlier and permissions had to be sought from the mayor to do the actual firing. I pitched up once all the hard work had been done! They packed the kiln with sawdust, dung and firewood, burying the treasured dogs as they went. On the dot of 9.00am on Wednesday they were allowed to begin the process, a dab of lighter fluid and away it went with a fairly strong wind to fan it. 
My job was hose pipe standby fireman, not needed. Once the flare had subsided I thought it was all rather slow. The wooden pallet that dropped the depth of one side of the pit seemed to take the fire down to the sawdust and dung quite nicely. After a few hours it was covered with corrugated iron and left to smoke.
The following day, hours ahead of schedule it was time to unpack. The high wind had accelerated the process.
Morag MacInnes in her Spanish studio.
4 comments:
Those little doggy fellows are irresistible! What a delight, all that fun, and no feeding or walking required! Thanks for putting the links to more of Joanna and Morag's work, it has been really nice seeing more of it. Joanna's pots seem to tap into something thousands of years old. Quite wonderful!
Peter, thanks for your comment. I have been thinking about the dogs since Wednesday, it puts me in mind of waiting for the gestation of a mongrel bitch that you knew went round the block several times and met quite a few handsome dogs on the way. When they big day comes the pups all come out with a black spot here and brown paw there….a right jamboree. Heinz Beans, 57 varieties!
Joanna’s pots do look absolutely beautiful, I really want to see some in the flesh, she explained the terra sigillata process to me, I have not seen it done before, I am quite drawn to all the buffing and polishing but I would be very nervous about putting the slip onto a dry pot and it not cracking.
Wow, those dogs are wonderful, how exciting. I am so glad you posted the last photo as the size of the dogs was hard to appreciate the perspective till the last one. The variegated colors look so great and I am amazed that the tails and legs hold up in the firing and do not break. The terra sig pot is beautiful. Do they bisque the pieces before they fire them? And do you know what cone or temp they bisque them to? I understand the minerals of the dung help to impart the colors too. I can't wait till winter around here so I can try a pit firing. I have only tried a barrel firing which was exciting. But not this post has me excited to try the pit too. thx.
Hi Kitty, I got on Morag's site and she answered my questions there about the firing.
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