bonfiring

B3O1N1F4I1R1I1N1G2

noun

The act of firing pottery using a bonfire.

Scrabble 15

Meanings

nounbonfiring (plural bonfirings)

plural bonfirings

  1. gerundgerund of bonfire
    1. ceramicsThe act of firing pottery using a bonfire.

      Most women's traditions involve open firing such as bonfiring, pitfiring, or a fire surrounded by a low wall. More unusually, in Cyprus, Colombia and the Canaries individual potters have their own kilns.

      2000, Moira Vincentelli, “Gender, Technology and Technique”, in Women and Ceramics: Gendered Vessels, Manchester; New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 42
      2 more examples

      Bonfiring has a very direct contact between the pottery and the flame. Firing time is usually quite short and the pots are carefully supervised through the process. Bonfiring, in general, does not create the same amount of wasters as kiln firing […]

      2004, Moira Vincentelli, Women Potters: Transforming Traditions, Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 212

      […]while open bonfiring was practiced mainly by women and universally used in African traditions where it has a very low failure rate. It has been characterized as technically simple though in fact it requires a hyper refined combination of specific clay body, fuel, firing technique and atmospheric conditions - formulas derived from local experimentation mainly by generations of women.

      2018, Kerstin Pinther, Alexandra Weigand, Flow of Forms/Forms of Flow: Design Histories between Africa and Europe, →ISBN, page 102
verb
  1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of bonfire

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

bonfiring. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonfiring

MLA

“bonfiring.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonfiring. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bonfiring,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonfiring.

Source: bonfiring on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.