One to come out of the fire pit experiment, this horse’s head was one of the least damaged pieces. The right-hand side has a pleasing ‘S’ shape of carbonised material, but the other was quite bare and didn’t look quite right.
I was lucky enough to find a fire pit in a sale at the local farmer’s merchants and so quashing pangs of buyer’s guilt, I bought it. Realising how hot it becomes, a calculated risk was taken to see if the blander left-hand side of the horse could be fired again.
Laying the horse’s head down on the side I wanted coloured, plenty of wood was placed in the pit with the head on top for the start of the fire (which is always the smoky part). Leaving it to heat and set, the horse came out well. Sponging off some of the loose carbon before it properly cooled, this left a slight ‘shine’ which I enjoyed.
Having used the fire pit for firing clay, it makes me wonder if I could use it again to fire from scratch rather than use the hole in the ground as done before. The fire pit is more manageable, but it does mean the pieces are only good for keeping indoors as they are porous. They also retain their brown finished colour rather than turning the black colour the clay achieves when reaching stoneware temperatures.
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