Raku...
Sunday was Raku day at pottery - a glorious sunny day, nice to meet some new people, all art-oriented. Raku firing was interesting, not knowing how the end product would look was exciting. The kiln was heated to 1000 degrees, then the pots removed and put in sawdust to cool. Finally they were taken out and scrubbed with wire and water to remove the blackened ash. All the time you could hear the crackling coming from inside the pot! With rapid heating and cooling, it is a process prone to breakages, so i was very pleased when both my pots came out intact. I did one with a grey glaze, which has a lovely crackle finish with ghostly grey spots underneath. The other was a turquoise glaze with copper glaze smudged over. Not sure where the turquoise went, but ended up with a metallic grey, dark brown and bright copper streak! Fun :)
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| Taking the pot out of the raku fire - v hot! |
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| Putting it into a dustbin full of sawdust to cool |
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| Finished after scrubbing the blackened surface off to reveal the different finishes |
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| Turquoise and copper glaze, right white/grey glaze |
