After holding out for so long, I finally gave in and did my first charcoal, saggar firing in my electric kiln.
Let me give a bit of a background. When I was in Bali last September, teaching a two week workshop, Seline my host ( who immediately became a dear friend) showed us some pieces that she had fired on a bed of charcoals set in a saggar, in an electric kiln. They were gorgeous but I had reservations about trying it in my kiln. Even though I was comfortable with firing combustibles in a saggar, in my electric kiln, just the idea of going from a low fire cone 07 saggar firing to a mid range cone 6 saggar firing was holding me back. After extensive experimentation, keeping diligent firing logs, and talking to people who had experience with saggar firing in an electric kiln, I had established that low temperature saggar firing wasn’t affecting the elements in any way but taking it to cone 6 was another story. Will it affect my elements adversely? Do I want to take the chance? For all these months, I told myself, no and stayed away from charcoal.
However lately, Namrata, from a.ware studio Bangalore, who was an attendee at the workshop, and who promptly became the third musketeer, gave the process a try and got some lovely results that she gushed about to no end on our threesome Whatsapp group and rightly so for the results were really exciting, exciting enough to puncture a hole in my resolve. I made some lame arguments about elements and such but I knew in my heart that she had won and that I had to try it. Promptly after our text conversation, I got a bag of charcoal. As I type this, my first firing is going on. I will get to see the results tomorrow. I know the learning curve involved with such a firing and that I would have to do a lot testing to understand the process. I am prepared for the work that goes into it so long as I don’t see any traces of adverse effect on the elements. Only time will tell whether this will become a part of my repertoire or just be a passing fling.
