Pitfire! (with lots of pictures)

So, the culminating event for my wheel-throwing class this semester was to do a huge pitfire in the middle of the Santa Cruz Mountains. For some reason I was possessed to shoot it all with my fisheye lens. The way it works is this:

1) Dig a really big hole:


2) Fill the hole with sawdust, salt, and pots:



3) Cover the pots with wood:

4) LIGHT IT ON FIRE

5) A few hours, a few beers, and several rounds of free-form scrabble later, this is what is left:(none of these are mine, sadly)

6) My pots!

(they look better in person, I swear)

I'll take some regular non-fisheye pictures of these later, these pots are really cool looking. This technique is a traditional Native American method of firing vessels, and you can't control the pattern the fire puts on the pots, which I love.