Pueblo Indians fired pottery in simple kilns for hundreds of years.
People have been making and firing pottery in kilns for thousands of years. A simple, ancient form of kiln you can easily make at home with scrounged materials is one of the easiest to construct and will fire your pottery adequately. Depending on what kind of pottery you want to make, this kiln may meet all your needs and at the same time cost you nothing or nearly nothing.
Instructions
1. Clear away any brush or wood around where you are going to build your kiln. Dig a small hole in the ground, perhaps 2 feet wide by 2 feet long by 1 foot deep.
2. Fill the hole with twigs and sticks to build a campfire. Do this on a clear, windless day. Wind could blow smoke into the kiln you're constructing or spread the fire.
3. Set the pots around the campfire, making sure they don't touch each other or become directly exposed to the flames. Start with pots 12 inches from the fire. One step at a time, move the pots closer to the fire. Be patient and do this carefully -- a pot heated too quickly can burst. Turn the pots so they become uniformly warm. If one pot does break, move other pots a little farther away.
4. When the pots are too hot to handle, use sticks or fireplace gloves to move them away from the fire.
5. Place flattened scrap metal over the flames. Cover the metal with pottery shards. Arrange the pots you're firing on top of the pottery shards, making sure no pot touches another. You are firing the pots twice. Once, close to a fire; the second time in the kiln. Cover the pots with another layer of pottery shards or broken pottery. Top this off with another layer of overlapping scrap metal. This construction is essentially your kiln. Make sure your pots are completely encased by the scrap metal and pottery pieces so they are protected from direct flames and smoke.
6. Cover your "kiln" with a thick layer of dried manure. The manure will burn quickly and evenly and hold its shape down to the embers. Don't worry, it won't stink. It will just smell more or less like smoke. Place the manure on top and around the sides of the kiln and cover it with the remaining twigs and sticks. Use straw or paper to light the manure in several places to distribute the heat all over. Dried manure is hard to light but burns well once lit.
7. Tend to the fire. A carefully tended fire will produce the best results, while an unwatched fire can spread. Add more twigs and dried manure to maintain an even heat. Be patient, and don't rush. Once the twigs and manure have burned, allow the fire to die down and cool on its own. When the pots have cooled so you can handle them, wipe them with an oily rag and allow them to cool completely.
