Feat of clay: making wild pottery – in pictures

Pottery being fired in a woodland fire in Sussex Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian

Harvesting clay from the stream at WoWo campsite in Sussex – check out the glampers yurt in the background Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian

Making the pots. Course leader Ruby provides Roman-style tools: chicken bones and sharpened sticks for shaping the pots and creating patterns on their surfaces Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian

Once the pots have been made, they're left to dry for a week before firing Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian

Before the firing, the pots are placed around the edge of the fire warm up so the extreme heat change doesn't damage them Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian

A platform is built over the embers of the fire to stack the pots on for the firing Photograph: Guardian

The pots are stacked tightly at the centre of the fire Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian

Sticks are piled up around the pots to keep the heat in Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian

As the fire burns up through the platform the sticks catch fire. The pots are temporarily blackened by the flames Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian

It's hard to believe that a campfire is hot enough to make pottery – or that the clay we just pulled out of the nearby riverbed can withstand the flames Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian

The pots cool in the dying fire Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian

Milk can be used to glaze the inside of the hot, newly fired pots, making them less porous Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian

Pottery teacher Ruby from Native Hands inspects one of the pots Photograph: Frederika Whitehead/Guardian