Just out the fire....

Here are a couple of pieces just out of the kiln. Two are pieces that Frank helped me "horsehair". The bowl is for a friend, Carol, who is giving it a gift. We used the hair from her friend's horses to create the burned in colors. The smaller one is "burro hair". I used the shorter, less coarse hair from Jake, an adorable burro at Agave Road. I found out that burro hair is much harder to work with. It's shorter and less coarse, smudging more in the burning process. You have to work closer to the pot and yes, it is hot and smelly!!!! But the pot is nice.

For those who don't know how horsehair pottery is made here is the basic version.

A pot is made (I throw mine) and bisque fired (that means after it dries it is fired to about 1800 deg. to harden the clay permanently. Then it is refired to a lower temp., about 1400 deg. We pull it out of the kiln and have only a few minutes to lay the hairs on the pot. They burn, or carbonize into the pores of the vessel leaving black smudges and wandering lines. If the pot is too hot it vaporizes the hair, if too cool, nothing happens. Often, I put a wash of several colors of dirt and clay over my pots to give them an more "earthy" look. When cool, the pots are brushed and polished with wax or sealed with a clear sealer.

I still waiting to pull the dish sets out of the bigger kiln, but it's still too hot. I glazed them once but was not thrilled so added more glaze and tried again . Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. We will see........