Playing with Fire

Raku is a type of low fire kiln process that involves taking the pottery from the kiln at bright red heat and placing it in containers with combustible materials. Once the materials ignite, the containers are closed. This produces an intense reduction atmosphere which affects the colours of the glazes and creates smoke.
Lots of photos in this post. I spent the day in a friend's back yard firing pottery. And there was a pot luck lunch.... yummy!

This mask was created made by pressing a slab of clay against a piece of tree trunk that had been cut down. All the ridges and textures of the bark were transferred into the clay and two simple eyes and a mouth were cut out. The mask was bisque fired once and was ready to be glazed.

A selection of the glazes that were available. When the glaze is painted onto the clay, there is no indication of what colour it might appear after firing. It's always a surprise.

Hard at work at the glazing table.

Some of the glazed items waiting for their turn in the kiln. My mask was glazed with a black lustre glaze.... no idea what it might look like when fired.

The back yard kiln. Fuelled by a propane tank. Some finished pieces on top warming up ready for the next firing.

This very hot piece is taken from the kiln and will be plunged into a metal container full of combustible materials, in this case crumpled newspaper, and then the container closed. This is where the magic happens to the glaze.

This process makes lots of smoke. Don't stand too near. And have tolerant neighbours!

Here comes the mask out of the kiln. The firing takes about 15 - 20 minutes.

This dish has just been taken out of the metal flame container and is cooling. It still has to be cleaned up to get the soot and burnt paper off, but much of the black smoke colour will be kept on the clay.

This piece has been fired without a glaze. While the piece is still extremely hot, straight out of the kiln, strands of horse hair have been draped over the surface. The hair burns away but leaves a decorative carbon trail. One of the other potters did the same process with large fluffy ostrich feathers.

And here's the finished mask! It still needs a good clean up to get all the soot off, but I'm happy with it. The photo doesn't do justice to all the different iridescent colours that have appeared in the glaze.

Raku

Our Monday morning Art Group meets in the back room of the Gallery every Monday morning and we aim to try different techniques and media.... so one of our number is an accomplished potter, and he fires many of his pieces in the Raku style.
You can read about the Raku process here.
Our first task was to make a pinch pot, starting with a shapeless lump of clay, shaping it into a ball, then making a depression into the middle, and working the sides until it looked sort of like a cup. Here's mine. This was after it had been fired once and I had added white glaze inside, and blue glaze on the outside with a couple of black blobs. I had no idea what this would turn out like.

 This was the kiln, home made and fuelled with a propane BBQ tank.

The items to be fired were lined up on the table and there was a selection of different glazes to be used. Our resident potter was there to give advice, as I'd never done this sort of pottery before.

 The items were fired in the outdoor kiln, and then taken out and put into a metal can that had lots of newspaper and other combustible materials in it, which of course caught fire right away. This is what gives the raku finish it's blackness and the metallic sheen.

 A clay mask that had been in  the kiln.... still cooling on the grass and covered with soot and ashes. I didn't see this one cleaned up.

 We also made small animal shapes to be fired but sadly mine broke in the kiln on its first firing. This was a sheep? bear? cow? whatever it was, our potter made it.

 My pot, once it was cleaned up, looks great, well, I think it does anyway, pretty good for a first attempt. When it first came out of the kiln it was completely black and had to be cleaned with a rough kitchen scrubbie and scouring powder.

 A selection of the items we fired that day. So they are not museum quality, but I don't care, we had so much fun and learned about a new process.