I watched the video without sound, did I get that wrong?
This is, of course, slightly abstruse if you aren't into the nitty gritty of it, but suffice to say, if you said his stack of bricks on the ground was a kiln, many people would be confused.
It's not what I do, but I've learned a lot from him even with sort of "as unrelated as you can get" ceramics focuses (I mostly work in thrown porcelain, with electric firing and fancy glazing techniques).
He’s run a newsletter for years, and he’ll occasionally talk about hosting workshops, or traveling to meet up with various academics.
He’s a very specific kind of nerd, and I love that he has found his niche.
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In terms of my own pottery, turns out I’m more of a slip caster. Much more in line with Kent’s channel[1] than Andy’s.
Early peoples would have used wax or fats to seal pots like these, to make them functional. People do that with modern pit-fired pots too, or use other sealants.
I designed and built my own high-fire kiln, but it uses industrially made light-weight insulating and refractory brick, and gas burners, and I use Orton cones to know when I've hit the right amount of heat-work, and a pyrometer to take temperature readings. But some brave souls make their own bricks, and look at the colour inside the kiln to know when they're at temperature.
I'd much prefer firing with wood. But I'm too suburban and firing with wood takes much more effort in prep and during firing, but it's a pleasant and exciting experience! Which gas firing is not.
One of my cousins learned that the hard way.
It 'sort of' works - the pots are very brittle and not at all waterproof. Glazing wont work at those temps so I tried a slip-glaze (basically glazing with liquid clay) which at least gave the pots a slightly shiny appearance.
Is it a good idea? No, it's an awful idea. You will burn your house down.
You start by building your fire with your ceramics in the center.
Placing some kindling, paper, small sticks, a standard camp fire type of thing.
Then some dry seaweed on top to make a mound.
Once everything has taken light you can add wet seaweed on top, covering the mound.
The idea being, that as the fire goes it drys out the fresh seaweed then combusts it. And you keep that cycle going for as long as needed.
You can add air tunnels if needed. Windy days are much better as you can really get a inferno going in there. I've managed to get temp's over 1300 degrees.
Firings can last days for very large ones (size of a truck), my longest it about 8 hours or so (size of a office desk).
Boo. It is not a solution if you live in multi-store house in the center of big city (and small electric kiln IS a solution in this case).
And yes, not every solution is for everybody... For people that don't live in a city, doing this in their backyard is more accessible than buying equipment.
And safety glasses to handle warm clay that's been heated at all in a kiln or a fire.
Looked at making unglazed terracotta ollas for irrigation and couldn't decide whether a 1/4" silicone microsprinkler tubing port should go through the lid or the side.
Terracotta filters water, so presumably ollas would need to be recycled eventually due to the brawndo in the tap water and rainwater.
/? how to filter water with a terracotta pot
It looks like only the Nat Geo pottery wheel has a spot to attach a wooden guide to turn against; the commercial pottery wheels don't have a place to attach attachments that are needed for pottery.
Also neat primitive pottery skills: Primitive Skills, Primitive Technology
"Primitive Skills: Piston Bellows (Fuigo)" https://youtube.com/watch?v=CHdmlnAA010&
"Primitive Technology: Water Bellows smelt" https://youtube.com/watch?v=UdjVnGoNvU4&
Megalithic Geopolymers require water glass FWIU
/? how to make concrete planters
But rectangularly-formed concrete doesn't filter water like unglazed terracotta
Also, if your apartment has a big enough balcony where you're allowed to put a barbecue, then this approach is just as viable as an electric kiln.
https://www.soulceramics.com/products/jen-ken-af3p-15-6-glas...
If you’re near a university with an archeology or anthropology program, they may offer a partial semester “primitive” pottery course. These are a blast and teach interesting techniques for building and decorating pottery objects.
If you have access to a park with bonfire pits, you can do your low firings there. The primitive pottery class I took ended with a combined cookout and firing at a public park a few weeks after the end of the class. The prof rented a shelter with a bonfire pit.
Pottery is a lot of fun. I made a variety of small pieces before I got to fire anything. You don’t need a wheel or any specialized equipment, just some basic clay and patience. Depending on where you live, you can dig your own.
Check out the Great Pottery Throwdown to see mostly modern methods of making pottery in a fun, friendly reality show format. (Think Bake Off.)
[1] Edited to add "friendly" and Bake Off reference.
builds a kiln
Perhaps a shift from generation to verification is healthy.