The process of Raku

I wanted to share more of the wonderful process of raku with you here today.  I've posted for the last couple of days about this workshop HERE and here.

Outside the BMCA clay studio...Raku is pretty smoky so it's usually done in the air rather than a building

Once the pieces reach temperature (glaze is melted) Bette removes hers from the kiln carefully...Bette is an experienced potter!

The piece is laid into a bin which contains a combustible material (shredded newspaper, sawdust etc.) more combustible is added, and the lid is placed on it after the fire shows.

A wet towel over the bin keeps smoke down and speeds the cooling.  In the background Geoff places another pot in a bin for Marsha

Again Maureen has the gloves and put the lid on the hot bin

Bette placed her piece in her bin in maybe a minute, while Marsha and Maureen were doing the same with her piece.  Geoff unloaded Marsha's, and maybe another couple of small pieces were also processed as this kiln load was emptied.  The only limit was the space in the kiln, one small shelf.

After about half an hour cooling, Bette takes the still hot piece from the bin with tongs

She places it quickly into the room temperature water bath, and will be able to take it out in just a few minutes.

Now cool to the touch, she lays it on the top of the wall for all to see

A beautiful butterfly, which can be rubbed a bit to clear off soot and bring out the iridescence of the glaze

Marsha reaches for a scrubby to work off the soot while standing over the water

Unglazed work sits on the wall, while bins smoke a bit in the background

And it's a beauty with both dark and light glazes showing!

Tree people

Raku workshop last Thursday with Geoff Bird and Maureen Joyce...go see more pics here!

These are my 2 pieces...sculptural tree people ...though one is being called an angel.  I'll only give a few photos here.

More group photos tomorrow.

The Napolean's Rage glaze turned gorgeous copper colored on just one side...

The other side remains that deep navy blue with iridescent glitters here and there.

White areas are glazed with clear crackle...which also covered the turquoise Mayco glaze, but just a thin coat...not enough to get crackle however.

I made this with some recycled clays, and the construction technique is what I call torn slab.

The Angel

Lower body is glazed in Napoleon's Rage glaze, which is pretty uneventful except in one place

The wings, arms and face were glazed with clear crackle, and this time nice crackles occurred.

Raku fun

A visiting teacher (Maureen Joyce)  joined one of our dear Black Mountain clay teachers (Geoff Bird) to give us lots of fun in a Raku Workshop.

 Geoff Bird loads the kiln with pottery (Note bottle shape on right, which has glaze painted all over it)

Maureen Joyce, (on r) answers questions by Gale, Libba and Georgia

Maureen managed pottery, kiln, combustibles and the small bins in which the pots were reduced (ie. deprived of oxygen)

Actually Maureen Joyce has been not only a teacher here, but also a student from when the B M Center for the Arts expanded its clay program.  She moved to Pennsylvania, but comes back to North Carolina almost yearly for a summer clay camp which she teaches.  This year she also taught how to build a clay vessel with a face...face pots!

Maureen explained the process to all the students and on-lookers

So I signed up for the raku experience.  Fun fun fun.  There was a lot of waiting around talking with other students while the kilns heated our work up.  But the other students were also interesting people.

And here's the bottle shape vase below, after having been fired, reduced, and cooled.  It did crack from the heat change when placed in the water bath at the end of the process.

The irridescent shine of raku glaze, (left) or a horse-hair finish on the pot on the right.

Bette placing a hot piece into the water bath after it's been reduced for about half an hour

I'm glad I brought a chair, and that the mosquitoes didn't like my Peppermint Dr. Bronner's soap flavor, which I have found deters the bugs!

The busy time when pots are smoking away in their bins, and then everyone waits till they're ready to open

And other students even brought some delicious and simple edibles to share.  I actually didn't think my work would take beyond 8 pm to fire.  But it was not in the first nor the second round, and when Geoff Bird did fire it, he took extra time to heat it gradually, thinking it had different thickness of clay.  Perhaps it did.  But it also wasn't even raku clay, a type of clay designed for thermal shock.

We had two kilns going which helped speed up all the pottery firing process

I didn't fire with raku clay, and I didn't have anything crack.  Shhh, that will put the raku clay people out of business, perhaps.

A blurry photo of a kiln with insulation inside it, within a garbage can

A pyrometer (inserted through a hole inside) tells by a dial how hot it is

Anyway, I also did some extra things besides using raku glazes...like throwing on some Mayco Stroke and Coat glazes, which mature at cone 06, about where raku glazes come to maturity.

we waited until it was over 1800 degrees F

I did put a bit of the raku clear crackle over the Mayco colors, but it didn't make much difference.  The only color of Mayco that came out was "Jaded" a nice turquoise. 

Taking the red hot pot from the kiln...

It was then placed into the container, where combustible materials were added, before the lid was put on the bin.

Tomorrow I'll have more photos!

Several bins smoking while wet towels are over the tops to help them cool down