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| Some of the washed pieces drying in the sun |
This was our second, and last, barrel firing for 2012. Totally worth the wait ! Once again we picked a perfect sunny and mild week-end for the firing. Just three of us this time, with 13 pieces total. So we packed the two barrels pretty loose, keeping the pieces in the center. One barrel had three layers, while the second barrel had two layers to accommodate a very large piece.
As usual, we started with kindling and a bit of hay at the bottom, then layered pieces with more kindling, a bit of hay, and a sprinkling of copper carbonate, iron oxide and salt in between layers. On the top, we built a little tepee out of kindling and squeezed in some rolled-up newspapers to start the fire. We also added some small pieces of newspaper through the holes at the bottom of the barrel, to start the fire from the bottom as well.
The fire started very quickly, and the smoke from the hay cleared rapidly. We soon were adding bigger pieces of wood, then oak wood after teh fire had gone for an hour. After feeding the fire for over two hours, we let he embers build up, occasionally adding more wood to make sure embers covered all the pots. Once the top layers of coals had cooled enough, we poured some sawdust on top and close the barrel with a lid, for the reduction step.
It took two days for the barrels to cool down ! But what gorgeous colors ! So much red this time.
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| Rose preparing her pots |
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| Lee and her magic Cheetos |
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| Final touches |
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| Lighting ceremony |
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| Let's get that second barrel going ! |
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| On our way to beautiful reds... |
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