As promised some photographs of the pit firing with Morag MacIness and Joanna Still in the olive groves of Malaga province. The two gals worked for four days together, Joanna working alongside Morag on her crazy dogs in extremely high temperatures. The pit was dug some months earlier and permissions had to be sought from the mayor to do the actual firing. I pitched up once all the hard work had been done! They packed the kiln with sawdust, dung and firewood, burying the treasured dogs as they went. On the dot of 9.00am on Wednesday they were allowed to begin the process, a dab of lighter fluid and away it went with a fairly strong wind to fan it.
My job was hose pipe standby fireman, not needed. Once the flare had subsided I thought it was all rather slow. The wooden pallet that dropped the depth of one side of the pit seemed to take the fire down to the sawdust and dung quite nicely. After a few hours it was covered with corrugated iron and left to smoke.
The following day, hours ahead of schedule it was time to unpack. The high wind had accelerated the process.
Morag MacInnes in her Spanish studio.
