How I made my bowl....

[d2]

I got some clay from the creek here in front of my house also got some from down on the river. While at the river I picked up a bunch of mussel shells. I threw the shells in a fire and let them burn. I took them out and crushed them and as you can see on my first attempt I didnt crush them into small enough particles. I had the clay in a plastic bucket with some water in it also. I mixed the clay and mussel shells together and rolled out some clay into a snake like kids do with play-dough. I set it up on a board and went to work. While I was doing this I had to dribble water on my bowl to keep it from drying out so I could still work it. Now while all this is going on I had built a fire out of fire wood I hadnt used the year befor and got a lot of coals. Once I was through with the bowl I let it set while I bent a peice of barn tin into a "V". I set the bowl on the ground, put coals around it and on it and sat the set the tin down with the bowl in the center of the "V". This helped keep the heat in and the pots all got about the same temp. on all sides. It's easy, just a little time consuming. I incised this one after it was fired. It's better to put your designs in befor you fire it. It looks better that way

 

[flintdigger]

That is good looking piece. I wonder if you could use a grill and still get the same results ?

 

[d2]

You probably could. Just use a lot of charcoal..d2

 

[flintdigger]

That is sort of what I was thinking, you could close the lid on the grill and and eliminate using the tin cone and prob get better heat distribution.

 

[d2]

The tin I used in the shape of a V was laid down on the edges with only one end open. I bet the grill would work just as good if not better...d2

 

[shorelinesearcher]

Very cool! I think I would like to do this some time when I have time. What is the effigy you put on your bowl, I can make out a bird or possibly a fawn?

mike

 

[d2]

It's a wood duck. I have got some that I did a lot better than that one but it was my first...d2

 

[flintdigger]

Well lets see a few more.

 

[Tnmountains]

d2
This is really neat. We did the same thing a few years ago but just never got around to firing them.
They are all in the barn on a shelf. We did not heat our mussel shells though so not sure how it will turn out. Yours looks great. Thanks for sharing this post with us. If I ever fire ours will share the pics.
Thanks,
TnMtns

 

[*Molly*]

Good job.