Alternative Kilns & Firing Techniques: Raku * Saggar * Pit * Barrel (A Lark Ceramics Book)

This is a very worthwhile and contentful book, just not what it seemed from the brief desciption. Hopefully this clarification is helpful to others:This book's editorial description, along with the title, seem to suggest that its focus is in how to create various homemade ad hoc kilns (for those that don't have ready access to a kiln already). It talks about kiln building, and never uses the word raku.Basically, however, this is a raku book, with lots of interesting variations. "Barrel" and "pit" kilns (mentioned in the subtitle) turn out to be just more forms of raku, rather than new kinds of homemade kilns. It contains many creative firing ideas with wonderful results, generously shared by a number of contributors. Along the way, of course, they do tell you how to put together firing chambers for these firing techniques. So it does provide some alternative kiln construction guidance with variations, but not the quantity I was expecting. And the firing techniques were an unexpected bonus.In style, this is a thin "coffee-table book" - lots of great photos, widely set lines of type, artistic white space. But the content is fascinating and invaluable to anyone who wants to do firings that are more interesting than simply closing the door and turning on the heat. Initially, I was disappointed when I saw how the content of the book was padded out with white space, but after I started reading I realized how much great information was in it.I would like to see much more expanded content (not counting the gallery & appendices, it is 89 pages). However, this does provide plenty of ideas to try for quite some while. I just need to find a different alternnative kiln book for when I'm not doing raku style firings. (The publisher could really help out here, by giving the table of contents, which really does give an accurate idea of the book content).

Excellent resource with clear descriptions

This is a good book! I wouldn't say it's a book for a true beginner (I mean, someone who wants to do pottery at home but has never fired a piece). It's not intended to show you how to fire a piece at home because you don't have a kiln. That's not how pottery works. It is a great "how to" book to walk you through Raku, Sagger, pit and barrel firing. It gives material lists and step by step instructions. It's easy to read and follow and doesn't spend half the book explaining how ancient civilizations made pottery (though it does briefly explain some history). Great job James C. Watkins and Paul Andrew Wandless for a good, and relevant book!

I got a few ideas from reading this book, but I think if I were a beginner this would be enough information to be dangerous, but not enough to fire effectively. For example, for firing with ferric chloride, there is no mention that breathing fumes during firing can cause injury or death.Proper respirators, eye protection, and gloves can make this a fun and effective firing method. Ignorance of safety issues can make this your final firing. Or just blind you or give you respiratory problems for life.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14513891http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9924033I hesitate to rate this two stars, because there is some good information in here. However there are some key details missing that are pretty important in my opinion that drop the rating.On the plus side, there are some good photos of pots, and a good quantity of artists' techniques which is interesting. It presents itself as an authoritative tome of alternative firing techniques. I think it is more accurate to say the author asked different artists about their process, and presented each one's methods as a separate category, rather than distill the methods into instructions with details on how differing methods produce different results.There is not a whole lot of information in this book that is not easily obtained with a web search. Each type of firing is a few pages, going for quantity of techniques over quality of instruction and details. The writing is decent, but light on details. Kiln building is a weak point of the content. No details are given on quantity of materials to calculate what to purchase to build a kiln. Quantity of bricks vs. square feet of kiln space, how much chicken wire and fiber blanket? What about insulated bricks versus fire bricks? None of these questions a beginner might ask are answered.Little detail is given on what materials or kiln construction to use to achieve given effects. There are some nice photographs of work to look at, and some recipes to follow. But this book seems more like a cheat sheet for people that already know how to use these firing methods than a comprehensive tutorial.

Great and informative book! Most of the Pottery books out there are for beginners, unless it's a glaze recipe book. This one has practical advice and tutorials on how to build alternative outdoor kilns to fire your work. I was lucky enough to go to a workshop and fire some gorgeous Pots under the tutelage of someone who's done it many times before, and looking to create create the same atmosphere for myself I ordered this book, and it's got all the Information I was looking for. I highly recommend this to someone who is looking to expand their process from the electric kiln. Posted is a photo of one my pots made with one of the processes explained in book. You can find this pot on Etsy if you look for me ;)

Present. Mother taking up pottery again after 3 decades. Said there were a few ways she could make a kiln without shelling out most of her retirement fund. Father also found it an interesting book to read, hes an engineer and found it had some detailed technical info in it too. On the whole both thought it was a well thought out and practical introduction to alternative kiln methods.

This book is an absolute gem. It is full of clear concise information about the different firing techniques. It provides great step by step photos and is explained really well. It also gives you some of the recipes used to create the pieces. I can’t wait to start trying out the Raku firing.

Was looking more for information on home built kilns rather than firing techniques as was looking at the "lost wax process" bronze casting rather than pottery firing.Maybe I just bought the wrong book

An interesting book for anyone interested in firing clay work. This book offers different ways to make kilns, shows you what you need and how to construct each kiln. Photo's of work fired is amazing,giving information on how the pot was fired and what was used to achieve the surface/colour etc.

This is a great book full of information and lots of good pictures , I would have given it 5 stars but for the length of time it took to deliver although it did arrive within the delivery estimate.