Back Yard Barrel

I've been working on setting up a studio out of my home in East Dallas, and am experimenting with techniques I can do easily at home.  One of those techniques is barrel firing  I got this food grade barrel that still had vegetable oil in it, cleaned it out, and started playing with fire! Shhh....don't tell the neighbors.

  

First we prepped the pieces in foil containers with materials like copper, miracle grow , and sawdust.  Then a fire was built on top of the pieces and left to burn.  I generally cover the barrel with a lid after the biggest fire has died down.



Here is the work after it has cooled.  You can then take tung oil and polish the work to deepen the colors.  I'll post some pics of finished work soon.