Editing Pottery (section)

==== Methods ====
Firing pottery can be done using a variety of methods, with a [[kiln]] being the usual firing method. Both the maximum temperature and the duration of firing influences the final characteristics of the ceramic. Thus, the maximum temperature within a kiln is often held constant for a period of time to ''soak'' the wares to produce the maturity required in the body of the wares.

Kilns may be heated by burning combustible materials, such as [[wood]], [[coal]] and [[Fuel gas|gas]], or by [[electricity]]. The use of microwave energy has been investigated.<ref>Sutton, W.H. Microwave Processing of Ceramics – An Overview. MRS Online Proceedings Library 269, 3–20 (1992).</ref>

When used as fuels, coal and wood can introduce smoke, soot and ash into the kiln which can affect the appearance of unprotected wares. For this reason, wares fired in wood- or coal-fired kilns are often placed in the kiln in [[saggar]]s, ceramic boxes, to protect them. Modern kilns fuelled by gas or electricity are cleaner and more easily controlled than older wood- or coal-fired kilns and often allow shorter firing times to be used.
[[File:Pottery_firing_Mali.jpg|thumb|Pottery firing mound in [[Kalabougou]], [[Mali]]. Much of the earliest pottery would have been fired in a similar fashion.]]

Niche techniques include:
*In a Western adaptation of traditional Japanese [[raku ware]] firing, wares are removed from the kiln while hot and smothered in ashes, paper or woodchips which produces a distinctive [[carbonization|carbonised]] appearance. This technique is also used in Malaysia in creating traditional ''labu sayung''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brothers-handmade.com/potteryhistory.html |title=History of Pottery |website=Brothers-handmade.com |access-date=2010-09-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130601232455/http://www.brothers-handmade.com/potteryhistory.html |archive-date=2013-06-01 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Malaxi Teams |url=http://www.malaxi.com/perak/labu_sayong.html |title=Labu Sayong, Perak |website=Malaxi.com |access-date=2010-09-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104011251/http://www.malaxi.com/perak/labu_sayong.html |archive-date=2012-11-04 }}</ref>
*In [[Mali]], a firing mound is used rather than a brick or stone kiln. Unfired pots are first brought to the place where a mound will be built, customarily by the women and girls of the village. The mound's foundation is made by placing sticks on the ground, then:{{blockquote|[...] pots are positioned on and amid the branches and then grass is piled high to complete the mound. Although the mound contains the pots of many women, who are related through their husbands' extended families, each women is responsible for her own or her immediate family's pots within the mound.<p>When a mound is completed and the ground around has been swept clean of residual combustible material, a senior potter lights the fire. A handful of grass is lit and the woman runs around the circumference of the mound touching the burning torch to the dried grass. Some mounds are still being constructed as others are already burning.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Goldner|first=Janet|title=The women of Kalabougou|journal=African Arts|date=Spring 2007|volume=40|issue=1|pages=74–79|doi=10.1162/afar.2007.40.1.74|s2cid=57567441}}</ref></p>}}