August 17, 2013

WOW! What a weekend

 
 
The weekend started off Saturday morning at an Auction Clearance Sale.  We love these, lots of lovely goodies to pick up for a song.  After picking through rows and rows of rubbish, we did bid for a few items for $2, $5 and $10.  The dearest $20 for a wrought iron outdoor setting in good nick.   But it rained all throughout the sale, I was miserably wet, the umberella kept wanting to turn inside out, then the sun came out once all items were sold.  Oh! well! That's the weather for you. 
 
Today, Sunday morning, was planned to set up a pit firing of a couple of burnished pots I've been saving for this occasion.  Lots of nice dry cow manure mixed into sawdust, copper pieces, corn husks (soaked in salt and dried), banana skins, coffee, dried leaves and an experiment (mistletoe leaves draped over pots).  Copper, magnesium, iron, salt and baking soda mixed through the manure/sawdust mix.  Took a lot of photos and here are a few of them.  This fire will probably burn for a few days the way its going at the moment.

1.  The big cauldron bought from a Clearance Sale
for just this use
 
2.  Plenty of fuel layed out on bottom of cauldron
and a large heavy grill placed about 1/3 way up.






3. The pots placed on a bed of sawdust/manure mix which has been laid on grill. Lots of other goodies placed in, on and around pots.

4. Another layer of sawdust mix,  placed carefully placed over pots and a layer of timber on top of that.

5.  Fire is lit under grill and away she goes

6.  "Lucky" guarding the fire, but it will be too hot soon for him to stay

Well that's the best I can do with these photos
they do what they want, not what I want
them to do. 

Don't forget to check out MudColony and see what the other "Muddies" are up to.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Annie, when I've done pit firing in a container, I've often had trouble getting enough oxygen into the fire. Does the grate allow a lot of airflow or does it just smoulder slowly away in there?

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    1. Hi Georgie, Just unloaded the cauldron, it has blown my mind with the fantastic results. I had the fire built up under a grill which was about 1/3 of the way up, leaving plenty of room underneath for the fire. Also built up fire on sides and on top. Didn't seem to have a problem with airflow, but must say the embers on bottom of cauldron are still smouldering away after 2 days.

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