Our Residency at the Desert Dairy, 2-22-2025 to 3-3-2025
This was our second residency at the Desert Dairy, completely different than the first but just as wonderful.
Rich, Lora and I were playing with clay at Shape Theory Studio last February. I liked returning to the basics: taking a lump of clay, pinching shaping it into something that still fit into the hand. Since Rich and I were returning to the Desert Dairy Residency I thought to do a pit firing that could handle the miscellaneous old and new, green and bisque pieces. We'd check the terrain, dig a hole, use whatever organic material was around and have some responsible fun with the fire. In the process we had to reckon with the desert wind and passed on using the pony and donkey dung as fuel.
Maria ChauDavis
2-22-2025: Packed up old and new , bisqued and green work, tools and a couple pugs of clay. Slept in our own bed instead of driving off into the night.
2-23-2025: Moved into Residency. Checked out sites for pit firing. Had barbecue dinner with Anna and Ted, great conversation. Visited the donkey Milton and the blind pony Buttercup while they were being fed. Met the dogs George (leashed) and Beck (unleashed). Talked Anna and Ted about pit placement. Here is the room arrangement. We brought our luxury twin air bed (bed on the left) from home.
Our home during the 10 day Residency at the Desert Dairy
Abe Delacerda's Workshop, the spring at sunset, and the stable for Milton (guard donkey) and Buttercup (blind but kind pony)
2-24-2025: Richard started digging. We went to a new place that was pricey but made good eggs on a bed of tiny little cubed potatoes after which we took a long nap. Richard kept digging but also took long breaks. Maria started pinching rattles out cone 06 clay. Some mild wind and the air was very dry.
Richard digging and Maria Photographing
2-25-2025: Richard finished the small (5x2.5 feet) coffin shaped trench and put in the windbreak. Ted told us not to burn down the corral. Maria prepared the Bruce's White Bisque ware for Saggar with horse hair, banana skins, copper scrub pads, orange peels, salt and bark. Maria then peeled 4lbs of oranges and saved our coffee grounds. We managed to eat all the oranges.
Digging in the morning; Maria working on prepping the sagger and set-up; setting up the wind screen
2-26-2025: Gathered wood and bamboo for the pit fire. Set-up the greenware at the end of the pit. Set all the fuel in the middle to make a fire for embers. 12:04pm we raked the embers and at 12:45 we put in the bisque pieces and restarted the fire at the far end of the trench around 3:15pm. We had wine and a happy hour with Ted and Anna waiting for the fire to die. After the fire died with covered it with dirt and then put the galvanized panel over the pit for the night.
One match fire! Starting the green and small bisque, adding the larger bisque pieces before starting a 2nd fire, fire is out but covering it for the night anyway
2-27-2025: We uncovered the pieces. They were smoked or smudged, but not much color. The organic material was not fully burned by the fire. Most green pieces survived that were stacked at the far end of the trench. We lost 3 of the green pieces (they popped). We needed a slower, longer, and hotter firing with a more careful placement of the pieces. After breakfast at Bennys, Richard reset the firing pit and Maria made some more cone 06 pieces. More rattles with bigger holes and open vessels and placed all out to dry in the desert sun. We were going to fire on Saturday but the wind report made that seem like a bad idea so we decided to do a second firing on Friday night. If we wanted to heated the pit slowly so that the greenware would have a better chance of surviving. Maria had successfully fired saggered wet greenware to to vitrification in a gas kiln years before.
2-28-2025: Some wind on Friday. Richard rebuilt a stronger wind break around the coffin shaped trench and wider walkway. The wettest green-ware was placed in the far end of the trench with the dryer green-ware in front. We also had a refire of some of the previous pieces that were still green from the first fire. We put in some of the smaller bisqued pieces as well. At 5:00pm we started a small fire away from the green ware to warm them up slowly. Every hour we built up the fire with bamboo and tree limbs. At 9:00 we started racking the embers over the dryer pieces. At 10:00 Richard misunderstood instructions and raked coals and fire over all the pieces. The green-ware started popping merrily. At 11:00 and 12:oo we raked more embers over the pieces. After 12 we rebuilt a fire over the pieces to the still merry sound of popping greenware. At 1:ooam we covered the embers and pieces with dirt and then went to bed.
New pieces for the second attempt and the start of the 2nd green firing
3-1-2025: At 10:00am we began unearthing the still warm pieces. Somewhere in the process we also took a nap. 10 green pieces popped, 2 re-fired bisque pieces, survived, 3 whole green pieces, and 5 still green pieces with minor chips. The fire was just not hot enough and long enough. If we had one more day to prep and fire we might have been more successful. As it was, the winds hit just as we were done.
3-2-2025: Maria did a write-up and evaluation of the results. Richard started filling the pit with the waiting wheelbarrow of pony and donkey dung at Anna's direction, afterwards covering the dung with a galvanized panel per Anna's instructions. The wind began to howl, the air was full of sand, we hid in the comfort of our room and did not go to the Oscar Viewing Party with Anna and Ted.
The last picture is Maria reconstructing from the shards of an exploded piece.
3-3-2025: Anna made breakfast, we talked about results and the next steps in the process. We then packed, took our trash, left, and got home around 2:30 neatly missing traffic. The wind was still going strong when we left but there was less sand in the air.
