She [Menolly] went to the clay deposits that Half-Circle Hold used and got sufficient clay to make herself several cups, plates and rude containers for storage, which she hardened in the ashes of her fire. Dragonsong ch. 7
Recently I have become interested in pottery and how it’s made, particularly whether you can fire it without a kiln. After doing a bit of research I decided to try making my own clay and firing it in our wood burner.
To make clay I started with dirt from the garden. I disolved it in water, poured it into another bucket and discarded the stones and gravel that had fallen to the bottom. I repeated this several times as well as scooping the plant material off the top. Next I left it overnight to settle out then poured the water off.
Then I strained the water out of the clay by tying it up in a rag and leaving it to drip dry.
I sandwiched it between papertowels until it was dry enough to handle.
Then I molded some of the clay into a pot and left it to dry for about 2 days.
To fire the clay I waited until there was a good bed of embers in our logburner and then heaped them around the pot. I left it in the fire for most of the day just to make sure it was cooked.
The pot cracked a bit but is much stronger then I expected. The lid was even better as it has no cracks and actually feels ceramic.
As a test of its usefulness I decided to make a candle in the pot. This worked surprisingly well and it didn’t leak at all. So this pot could be used, but not for liquids. The cracking might have been caused by the way I made the pot rather than how I fired it, I’m not sure. If you had to you could probably make usable dishes this way but it would take a bit of practice and experimenting.
I made a few more things and they didn’t crack at all.
Here be Dragons 