RAKU! Playing with fire

This week, I attended my second ever Raku course and it was so much fun! The course is run by an experienced artist named Marion Falk along with an assitant, and she took us step by step through the whole process. In total we were 9 people and I estimate we fired about 80 pieces.

If you don't know what Raku is, it's a Japanese technique of firing pottery using open flames :D It's a fun and exciting process because you never know what you will get.

The day started with introductions followed by an introduction to different glazes and techniques that could be applied to our work. We spent the morning glazing, hanging out and having coffee before getting into the firey process of burning out clay into pottery.

After glazing our work, we let it dry above this fire to burn out all the moisture. This helps prevent accidents/breaks when the work undergoes the intense firing process.

Work is then placed into a kiln like this where it's fired up to 800 °C to melt the glaze. The photo above shows our work in the kiln at 769 °C / 1416 °F ,as seen on the temperature reader to the right. This firing process happens so quickly, and what would take a normal kiln 9 hours to complete is done in about 20 minutes.

Once they are ready, you use a long pair of tongs to carefully lift out the piece and carry it to a pile of sawdust where it can complete its firing process.

The time between taking the piece from the kiln and into the sawdust makes a huge difference on how the final work will look.

As the pottery gets moved from the kiln, it cools in the air and the tension forms cracks. It’s quite a balance to get this right since covering the piece too quickly will mean no cracks form, however fast cooling it (like on a cold day) may cause it to crack due to the tension.

Once in the sawdust, you wait until the work bursts into flames so that it can then be covered by a bin. This bin creates a “reduction” atmosphere, where oxygen is snuffed out and chemical processes begin to give the work its final colors.

After some time, the work is then removed from the bins to cool using water/blankets.

BUT WAIT! They aren’t done yet still because they have to be cleaned. They end up covered in soot and charcoal, which has to be carefully scrubbed off to reveal their final colors.

I made 11 pieces and still l need to clean them. Sadly one broke, but that’s just part of the process. Once they’ve been cleaned, I will be sure to share them here!

Raku is a really wonderful process, and the unpredictable nature of it is what makes it so fun! I hope I explained it well enough to kind of understand how this work is made and why it’s so special.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask :)

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(I still need to edit the video from the first time I did raku! Give me strength to do it lol)