Smoke firing

The very first assignment at school was to look under the surface, what we have in our underwater world. We sculpted small figures in freestyle from local red earthenware, bisque fired and smoke fired them in the end.

The pieces were dipped into low fat milk to make the smoke absorb better to the clay. I also left "unmilked" areas and tried burnishing on some of the pieces. The results were very good and even leatherlike (that might not show so well in the pics). This primitive technique produses unique and mystical pieces. Smoke fired pots will not hold water because the clay stays porous, so it's best for decorative uses.