Pinch Pot Birds

“Pinch Pot Birds Class/Burnishing/Sawdust Fired”    
In this class, students will be guided all to make their own pinch pot bird.  On the first day, we will make the pinch pots, shaping them into bird shapes, with subtile additions to suggest the wings, the tail and also the beak.  The birds will set aside to dry.
 
On the second class, we will refine the birds, and burnish and or polish using terra sigillata, which is a fine clay slip.  You will see  how magical this process is.  We will talk about the firing process.
 
After this Celia will bisque fire the birds, and then they will be sawdust fired in a very simple red brick kiln.  Celia will let the students know when she will load and fire the sawdust kiln in case any of the students want to see this process.  It is interesting because the pieces are layered in the kiln with dry sawdust, and then a fire is lit on the top, then the cover is placed on and it stays like this until it stops smoking…up to 8 hours.  It just smolders slowly, and the pieces will have random smoke patterns.
 
Birds should be available from the gallery about a week after the second class.
Materials:  All materials will be supplied along with firing.