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Greetings, last year's workshop was so fun we decided to do it again. If you want to play at low temps and alternative firing techniques, we'd love for you to join us in Sioux Falls, SD!

My family and I've been making pottery lately and having a lot of fun with it, I'm getting ready to fire them and although I've read a lot of stuff about pit fired clay not being "food safe" (I'm not concerned, and they're only for our personal use) but I just read that they can't hold liquid, that it will go through the cup/vase/teapot/whatever. Is that true?

Submit bisque-fired work “dressed” for pit firing to this annual event by mail! Dressings should be fire-appropriate and double as packing materials. Boxes will be placed directly into the firing pit, unopened, and fired during the event on the evening of October 6, 2017. Digital Photographs of fired work will be returned to the artist. Work must be received by 10/3/17. For more information on submitting work or attending the PIT FIRE Festival at Cochise College in Douglas, AZ, contact: Tate Rich richt@cochise.edu or Virginia Pfau Thompson: thompsonpfauv@cochise.edu PITflier.pdf

Hello! Is it possible to high fire a glaze on the interior of a cup and around its lip, and to then pit fire? I'm trying to find a way to make pit-fired cups food/water-safe! I'm assuming that this process wouldn't affect the high-fire glaze, but perhaps the outside (unglazed) body would no longer be able to take in the marvelous colors produced in a pit fire? I'm new to this process, but will be doing a ton of experimenting over the coming months with local blue clay that I've begun harvesting. Thanks for any insights!

This old well pipe came with my house when I bought it. It has been obviously used as a fire pit by previous owners. It was left filled with trash and woodland debris, covered with vines and unmovable without significant cost.I just cleaned it out and created a temporary "hearth" from the pot shards and rocks that were inside of it. I wish I could at least turn it upright, partially bury it and use it to barrel fire but, alas, my boyfriend will have nothing to do with that. Can this be used to do some kind of pit fire or are the physics of the horizontal shape too small? It's about 30-36" dia and 5' long (haven't measured it yet). Any ideas? Or should I just relegate it to being a social fire pit? Thanks.

Tomorrow Friday I will start the long expected Obvara-after-a-pit-fire. We discussed Obvara in a thread of Marcia's already, but now I will try to get a pit (and not a raku kiln) as hot as possible to be able to do Obvara. I started the witch's brew 2 days ago and, on the first day, I got a nice fermentation, 2nd day it was just a liquid mass, today I see fermentation again (lather), but the liquid was never warm (except when I started the brew with warm water). Question: shouldn't a fermenting brew be at least luke warm? The fermentation is a chemical reaction isn't it? And that leads to warmth?! I kept to the known recipe: 10 lt luke warm water 1 kg flour 2 packets of yeast (our packets here in Europe are 10 grams per packet - and yours in the State?) 1 tbl spoon of sugar (I took whitte sugar) Any tips and tricks you can give about the pit fire getting hot enough for the Obvara firing are very welcome! Thanks. Will keep you in the loop. Will go to bed now, it's almost 9 p.m. here. See you tomorrow. Evelyne

I have a friend who is obsessed with doing pit fires but using raku clay has turned out less than desirable results. Does anyone have a clay body they have liked for pit fires?