05.23.07
Pottery Made from Your Horse’s Hair
The acute observer will notice this is a picture of a pot and perhaps wonder what it has to do with a blog on pet trends and products. Well, it’s a pot with horse hair crafted into it. Specifically, you can have your own horse’s hair worked into the pottery (a few snips from the tail is all it takes). Those little swirls on the side of the vessel are the remains of hair.
Here are a few details on how it’s done:
“Horsehair pottery is made from a white clay that has been bisque fired to a lower than usual temperature. This leaves the fired clay body quite porous, enabling it to absorb the carbon from burning horse hair. Later, the bisque is warmed up in the kiln to about 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. When it is removed, individual strands of horsehair, preferably from the tail, are laid against the hot surface. If the temperature on the surface of the piece is just right, the hair will attach to the pot, shrivel up, and begin to burn. As the ash forms, a small deposit of carbon and smoke is absorbed into the clay surface, leaving a permanent trace of the horsehair.”
The horsehair pottery is the work of Claypony, where you can order a pot for about $50.