In the days that pottery was fired in large wood and coal burning kilns, the flying ash from the combustibles would combine with the glazes as they melted, resulting in unpredictable, often disastrous results. Potters build ceramic containers (saggars) in which the glazed pot could mature away from the chaotic atmosphere of the kiln.

I use saggars to hold my pots but instead of shielding them from an outside environment they contain the atmosphere that will add color and movement to the surface of the vessel.

A bisque fired pot is placed in the saggar which is usually a deep ceramic bowl. I then pack various oxides, sulfates, salts, combustibles (anything that might lend a blush of color or an interesting effect to the surface) around and over the pot until it is completely buried.

The saggar is heated gradually in a gas kiln to over 1000° F at which point the salts and oxides emit fumes that imprint themselves on the hot surface of the pot. Various patterns and colors appear depending on the temperature, materials used and duration of firing. There are so many other variables that the results are far from predictable but usually exciting.

      Photo by Marie Browning

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