I am trying to bisque fire terracotta clay in a pit firing at home.

Think I can do this by firing in a weber grill, or a standalone patio fire pit like you did?

Ideally, I would like some indication of the temperature reached, as my previous pots turned out well when fired in kiln at cone 08, (roughly 1770 degrees).

Any info you can provide is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Roy Strauss

So, for now, here’s a quick answer: I’ve found pieces that are burnished only (i.e. no terra sig) have a more subtle and muted range of colors, which I actually have grown to like more than the terra sig ones. I don’t think I can embed a picture here, but here is a link that you can click on and have a look, and here is the back side of those same 4 pieces.

As to bisque temperature, I’ve gotten very decent results with cone 06 in the past (but all with terra sig), and have seen ‘good enough’ colors on cone 04 pieces too. Still, I prefer cone 08 or lower. These days I typically bisque fire my rocks to cone 012, since they are pretty sturdy structurally and won’t be too fragile even at such a soft bisque.

These days I generally don’t have a terra sig peeling problem if I have a quiet firing — but sometimes I like to use a bellows to intensify flame action near the surface of specific pieces, which often results in more intense colors as well as a higher probability of terra sig flaking. Also, Chad Dykstra once told me that he found concentration of salt to be the culprit for his terra sig flaking problems.