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Ceramics actually won't explode if there's an air pocket. They'll explode if they have trapped water. I'll explain why with my viral chicken maraca which got hundreds of comments from people worried that the poor hen would explode with her babies inside. Spoiler - she didn't explode! I actually did poke a hole in the bottom, but after posting part one and seeing all these comments, I decided to close up the hole so I could prove it wouldn't explode. Then I had to dry her for over a month to make absolute sure no moisture remained. While drying this way is slower, the clay will dry from the outside in. If I had left the vent hole, it could more quickly dry from the inside out as well. I'll show you how I made some untrapped birdies while I explain how trapped water causes explosions in the kiln. While air does expand a bit when it's heated up, it's nothing compared to how much water expands. After clay dries it's actually porous and full of little air pockets. So as the piece is bisk fired, the expanding air should have plenty of time to slowly exit even though there's no vent hole. The real culprit of explosions is water. If clay has not dried fully before going in the kiln, as soon as the kiln reaches the boiling point of water, the water will turn into steam, which expands over 1,500 times its volume! This happens so fast that there's no time for that steam to exit through the pores and boom! Explosion! The main takeaway here is that trapped water, not trapped air, is way more likely to cause explosions in the kiln. So, always dry your ceramics fully before firing them, and adding a vent hole is always a good practice, since it's hard to tell if it's fully dry, especially thicker pieces. And to give the steam a place to exit if there happens to be any trapped water. Now here's a chicken maraca with FREE babies as many of you requested. These are part of my summer collection for sale in my online store. Link in Bio.