caveman

Long story short I got some clay from digging in the back yard. I got to thinking about it and did some research I am going to explain what I did what happens when I fire it. I am open to suggestions feel free I have a lot to learn Ok so I took the information I had from research and life added water shake vigorously and......poof a hole in the ground I shall name it pit....... The pit is 50 cm by 75 cm and the depth is 50cm except the center it has a large piece of fireplace on it keeping the floor at about 50cm and under it it goes deeper I used forced air and put old gas pipe in at angle and on the end I put a shop vac set for blow. I made a lid for it but it was unsuccessful I took fire brick and lined a piece of metal roof I think when the air was on I had a gap between the brick and metal where I had a rectangle hole in it I think the air currents. I probably not explaining it well. So I only used a full lid once normally I would stack brick and stone to cover over about a quarter of it. Firing I would take what ever I was going to fire in the bottom some wrapped up in newspaper some naked then I would kindle then some pieces about 4 cm thickness stack on it I would light it but wouldn't turn the air on I would over fed the fire almost choking it out I would have a lot of partial burnt wood once I had about 10cm of it on the bottom I would start the air and add wood lots of wood and watch the flame change color from red to blue and white I would keep it going for about 2 hours then I would leave it and come back the next day and dig out (and hope alot)the things and pieces. I did a lot of experimenting and once I covered the fire with dirt when done took a lot longer to cool. The time I had a lid I had a piece of slate from the roof in small spot to keep heat from the pipe I didn't want the pipe to get hot enough to melt the end of the shop vac well I melted that piece of slate some of the pieces of clay looked like kinda melted and if I was sharing kiln space I would have had a lot of people upset the whole inside of the pit was now a nice bright terracotta color if someone please explain what happened there (figured it out iron in the dirt when I covered it was left behind) The brick in the bottom is not mortared in I take apart the bottom when I clean it out then restack it back for next time after the big piece is back I use broken pieces of fired clay like lava rock that way the air comes out defused more even i will add photos in my albums tomorrow when I have better light. All it is a hole lined with brick air pipes in from bottom . If this was your backyard what would you do differently? Can I use cones in it? How can I make a top for it? Can it be made for next to nothing? What would you try if you where not afraid to fail?

Ok reprocessing some now working on some pictures as well

Thanks for the response ok first when I pulled the fired pieces out I wipe off the ash with a damp rag the first time I knew I was not close because they were still clay they started to go soft and would have dissolved I think but I will put some in and let you know. I will get some pictures for you if it helps I am in Zanesville pretty close to the licking river about the middle of an old bluff I think . a chunk of it came out from under the house I had to replace a couple of the original block that was used for door between the basement and coal room I figured that spot probably had not been disturbed since the house was built over a 100 years ago I wondered if and how it would have been effected that close to the coal room the floor in basement is concrete and the coal room looks like red brick. I think that is the spot where I seen the white mostly unfortunately I don't have pictures of the stuff I got there and there is a very heavy house on it. At one time there was a draining issues and water did come in basement for how long don't know but at least a season probably a lot longer. I will work on those pictures for you. I hope these details are of help. I was wondering the same thing.... Wait let me rephrase that I was wondering if I was washing away the stuff that I should have been keeping. My thinking was maybe clay brick had like certain size particles and white porcelain was like really fine particles Thanks Caveman

To start I am writing this because I need some help this is not a diy. I am in Zanesville Ohio now I normally live in Florida the ground there is mostly sand mixed with sand. In Zanesville there is a lot of clay I was digging and hit big ball of it being different then what I was used to was playing with it and the artist in me is already sculptured a 5m turtle in my head got me thinking and I know Zanesville is known and has been for long time for pottery I assume that there's a reason why (I thought it probably was something about the clay) I put it in a bucket do research on my phone and this is what I did (at first I thought how hard could this be but when I jumped in found out water was over my head) I started digging it out and tried to get as little dirt and debris as possible I was finding white,grey, orange and red clay I didn't separate it after bucket was about 2 thirds full I added water gave it a little mix then dumped out the water and large part of dirt or at least that was the conclusion I got. Then I put new water in filling it then mixed it then let it sit for couple hours and mix then let it settle for about 12 hours and then I poured the top of it off getting the water and about inch off the top. I would put it through a screen, had to add water after filter I would let it settle then decanter the water off the top then put it in plastic tub and put a fan going across it till it dried out enough to do something with it I got a darkish red clay I made few discs to experiment with I let it dry out for a couple days in that time I dug out a pit kiln and lined it with rock and old chimney bricks I put in a pipe ran into the center of the pit and the other I put a shop vac set for blow on it. I wrapped some of it in newspaper and put it in and built a fire and would let it burn out after about 2 hours I got some cool looking stuff I also had a lot of broken stuff but was expecting it. Also it had a lot of mica in it not sure if that is good or not I have pictures of it also I went and signed up for pottery classes here locally and while they gave me a tour they had a clay that looks really close to what I got. I know it's a big post I am not sure what information is important. I would like to know what is right and what is not and in the end I would like to be able to make things like ancestors did Thanks for help Caveman

I read this topic because I made wall tiles for a backsplash in my mom's house in Zanesville Ohio... Ok well I'm working on them now. I to was going to make floor tile but after some thought about installing floor tile I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to make it anywhere near tuff enough so went with wall tile I wanted a unique look so I made them round and different sizes. This all started when I was digging in the back yard and hit clay and thought maybe Zanesville was known for pottery cause of the clay looked up how to process it and then did some reading then dug out a pit kiln got fire brick and used a forced air set up been experimenting. I wrap the pieces in newspaper place them in the pit build a fire keep it going till I run out of wood I realized I would benefit from talking to someone. Can someone please point me in the right direction? Thanks I should be finishing this project in couple weeks I have pictures of what I have done so far