Experimenting with a wax finish....

It's been a creative day!

We did another pit firing, experimenting by refiring bland pots - pots that had very little colourful effects on them.

I wrapped banana leaves around one, then put it in a large paper bag which was filled with sawdust and seaweed. The results were lovely - we got blues, purples and greys around the pot. There were bits of red which were probably  caused by the copper which Gerry had sprinkled around the outside of the bag, which had obviously burnt and exposed the pot to the copper carbonate.
The  fire had got really hot - much hotter than in previous firings. We had used some harder wood which we had obtained from the Rocking horse Shop and this might have had an effect too.

Once the pots have cooled down they need to be washed to remove any ash or other impurities. To give the outside of the pots a shine, they get a wax finish applied. Up to today we have been using Annie Sloanes soft wax - which is really used for polishing up "distressed furniture", and we've had some in the house. However, Gerry thinks he can achieve better results by buying the proper stuff, so has bought on line something called "Renaissance micro Crystalline wax.   Sounds impressive, but we will have to wait until next week to see if the results do in fact improve.