saggar firing

some exciting results from the saggar firing.

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lots of greys and browns, rusts on the terracotta crank and even boring old potclays crank has a lovely roasted rust (top of pot in centre), and some really interesting markings.

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all that remains of the sawdust is the brown crumbs on the shelf. I have lots more pots that are going to benefit from this treatment, and the ones that were just glazed and fired normally on top of the saggar look rather anaemic. I am going to refire some of them in the sawdust saggar. frustratingly I don’t have enough shelves for this. but after Sebastian Blackie’s very helpful comments and a further correspondance, I think I could do this with some cardboard saggars using a different slip, in the part of the kiln away from the flame, and use saggars made of kiln shelf in the side next to the flame.

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on further thought, I do have four silicon carbide shelves which will just squeeze into the kiln on their sides, so provided they stay upright I can make a super saggar which contains the whole of the kiln. and if Sebastian Blackie’s saggars work without lids, because really they just hold the sawdust in place around the pots, there is no reason why this should not work without a lid. which means I can get my tallest pots into it. which is very exciting. I have several kiln loads of tall pots which were going to be fired in Nic Collin’s hogback anagama, but in fact the results I am getting by saggar firing are much more suited to my work than Nic’s highly-ashed anagama firings.

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in the event, the silicon carbide shelves turn out to be too thin to stand on their sides safely, and I use the same shelves as for the first firing with ceramic insulation board for the top half.

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2 cones inside as a record

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and the usual cones to check through the spyhole/extractable brick, except that they are a brick lower than usual as the only place to put them was perched on the edge of the shelf, and goodness knows what the temp will be outside the saggar box next to the front here.

of Monday’s  firing, I will post again later when I have all the photos up on a web page.

2 Comments

  1. I see why you’re getting excited about these, they’re gorgeous! I really like the dark pot that looks like it’s got fire burning it’s way out of the thing…

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