The Island Pit Firing
This pit firing was a great example of what happens when you have two options and choose neither clearly. But also a good example of how you can get inspired from almost anything if you put your head on a certain way. My wife's family cottage is on an island on Lake Simcoe. It's a lovely place, and home to some fabulous honey from the U of Guelph apiaries. There for the weekend, I thought it'd be great to dig a hole in the ground and experiment with making some kind of furnace à la ancient Egypt. A fiery hole in the ground with a vent or two for air flow, or maybe the vents could be used for bellows or a fan, to get the temperature hot enough to fire up some clay figures. Something like this, but for clay, not metal: Or maybe I could make a fire in a pit with vents, and then create a reduction atmosphere for the clay figures, like in the final stage of a raku firing . So in hindsight, all I really had clear was that I would dig a pit, make a fire in it, ...