saggar

More Raku Saggar "Faux Pit Fire" Attempts

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You may recall I previously experimented with using raku aluminum foil saggars to approximate pit firing. That first time, I just tried it on one piece of burnished pottery; I liked the results!

At this recent workshop, I did two more. I also added some combustibles I hadn’t yet tried: Miracle Gro fertilizer crystals and Zep Root Kill crystals (copper sulfate pentahydrate). If I were doing actual, controlled experiments, I would test one variable at a time and then combinations of two at a time, three, and so forth. However, I have to pay firing fees for each piece of pottery I take to these workshops, so instead I’m being pretty liberal with my variables.

I strategically placed root kill crystals, Miracle Gro, coffee grounds, banana peel, copper mesh, copper wire, and steel wool in and around the bowl below. This time, I tacked the crystals and powder to the foil and the bowl with hairspray, so it could stay in contact with the interior and exterior sides instead of just falling to the bottom. I wrapped that all fairly tightly with a layer of aluminum foil. Then I poured some salt on and added another two layers of aluminum foil, hoping to get some cool fuming reactions.

I waited to see how the bowl turned out before committing to doing another with this same finishing technique. I admit that I was hoping the new crystals I added would have contributed a wider range of colors, but I nevertheless liked the result.

However, I wanted even more finer carbon marks on my second piece (a plate), so I used the same ingredients and added a small sprinkling of sugar as well. I again put some salt between the first and second layer of aluminum, and it didn’t seem like it required a third foil layer for coverage (it was easier to wrap the flatter form) so it got fired with just two.

I adore this plate - it’s either tied for my favorite piece from this firing or might take first place.

Mason Stained, Ferric Chloride Saggar Raku Ceramics

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Bisqued pottery ready for the workshop!

Here are the Mason stained, ferric chloride dipped, and saggar fired pottery resulting from my fall workshop! I used three different Mason stains: chartreuse, jade green, and dark teal. I mixed the stains with terra sigillata and applied them in a variety of ways (brush, sponge, scraper). I was purposely going for choppier, sectioned out applications of the Mason stain this workshop to compliment the choppy, random ferric chloride saggar markmaking. (I previously experimented with all-over solid dark teal in varying terra sigillata tints.) To the right is an image of all the bisqued pieces for awaiting ferric chloride dipping for this workshop.

After applying the ferric chloride, I did use a combination of sugar, copper mesh, copper wire, and/or Muehlenbeckia axillaris aka Creeping Wire Vine to contribute additional texture/carbonization, and then wrapped the pieces up in aluminum foil.

First, a large bowl:

Next, a squat vase:

This is a taller, medium-sized bowl:

A sideways-opening orb - I think it’s one of those pieces that doesn’t photograph as well, so it’s significantly cooler in person:

Finally, my favorite piece (mostly due to the finish, but I also like the shape). However, it unfortunately blew off an outer side piece of exterior as well as a piece off the bottom in the stressful firing and cooling process. Since it’s raku anyway (meaning it’s not food-safe or watertight even when undamaged), it’s less important when a piece is damaged. Luckily neither of these blown-off spots went all the way through the ceramic body or caused cracks to the body itself, so they’re just cosmetic and the ceramic itself is still sturdy. I decided to try a kintsugi-inspired repair for the side wall, and just put a foam furniture foot in the bottom cavity for added stability.

If you want to see a clearer detail shot on the kintsugi-inspired repair, here you go! I used a combination of super glue, gold mica powder, a little spackle, and quinacridone / nickel azo gold paint to achieve this repair. I initially had planned on just using super glue and gold powder, but the gold wasn’t showing up as much as I wanted and there was still a bit of unevenness to the edge so I added the spackle and paint to smooth it out and deepen the color.

Again, since the blown-out section was shallow enough, it did not require repair on the interior side.

As you may know, real kintsugi is a much more laborious, toxic process (I did one of the steps in a workshop in Japan in 2024) that when done correctly ensures food-safe results to originally food-safe ware; to my mind it is overkill for non-food-safe rakuware.

Previous Raku Workshop: Faux Pit Firing

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I experimented one last time at the April 2025 workshop: I wanted to approximate pit firing, so I put a burnished bowl into an aluminum foil saggar along with a variety of combustibles including dried banana peel, coffee grounds, steel wool, and some metal salts.

Here is that bowl post-firing:

The metal salts didn’t really do much, but the rest of the colorants did produce a range of neutrals! I really liked this result and plan to do more in this vein in the future.

My Previous Raku Workshop: Mason Stain Saggar Pottery

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Before we get to my pieces from the October 2025 workshop, I never finished sharing my April 2025 raku pottery as I segued into Japanese residency posts and then went on from there! When we last left off, I had shared my experiments with Mason stains and crackle glazes.

I also experimented with dark teal Mason stain and ferric chloride saggar-fired pottery!

First, we have an orb marked with copper mesh:

This is a small dish which has some marks from a copper wire on the exterior:

Next, an oblong vase! The black smoky spots are from testing out a bit of copper tape:

Finally, a small bowl, using a strip of copper mesh this time!