Judy Motzkin's Blog

Saggar firing in Wellfleet

Posted about 1 year ago

This is my favorite time of year for saggar firing. In the cold of winter, working with an outdoor kiln can be difficult. In spring, during burn season, we turn our brush burn into a pit fire. In summer, it is a pleasure to work outside. I teach this firing technique here on occasion, as I just did with a group of young pottery club members from Lexington High School. They came here with matching red Varsity Ceramics sweatshirts with their teacher Erin Mahoney, who attended a workshop with me four years ago while she was a student at Mass College of Art.

Saggar firing is a method in which burnished pieces are placed in clay containers nested with combustibles such as sawdust and straw that has been soaked in minerals. We gather salt marsh hay and seaweed to add to the fire. As the materials and pots are heated together up to 1600F, colors from the fire are absorbed into the polished clay surface. The accidental effects echo the random beauty of nature—the landscape, the sky—mysterious, surprising and always new.

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