Sort of beginner

Dear all,

I was fortunate enough to have been at a school in the UK with an
active ceramics teacher, some wheels and two kilns, and got
bitten by the bug. Unfortunately, everything was a little too
pre-chewed, meaning that I never had to collect and prepare clay
and oxides or mix my own glazes.

Now that I am on my own, I am finding it a little daunting, but
willing to go for it.

After school, while on military service up in the mountains
bordering Bulgaria, I managed to collect some clay in the wild
from a river, dried it out on the roof of the barracks, and made
some pots. These I put in a big empty petroleum style barrel (the
metal ones which always seem to hang around ports waiting to be
driven into and explode in "action" films). I filled this up with
dried grasses and sticks and torched it.

I doubt the temperature got very high, and I only kept the fire
going about half an hour. The pots that did not explode came out
harder than they went in, but porous.

I have now gathered some clay again in the wild and spent some
time putting it through seives to remove organic material and
stones, and I have had a go at making some pots.

These I have burnished with the back of a tea-spoon. On some I
have put some coloured slips that I made with coloured stones
(powdered in pestle and mortar) and very wet clay.

Burnishing over the slips has made some of the colours nice and
vivid.

Questions:
If I find another barrel, should I try to fire the pots in there
again? The other options are a wood fired fire-place in a country
house (but I have to wait for the winter) or an open fire in
someone's garden. Will any of these firing ideas make the clay
non-poous to the extent that the pots will hold water / wine?

I know that ideally I should go buy some clay, rather than
collect from fields, and possibly go buy a kiln, but that is in
the future.

Oh well. All comments, questions, ideas, etc. welcome!

Cheers,
Stelios, Athens-Greece

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