Raku Rainbows and Fish

On Saturday I had the opportunity to raku fire some pottery. This was the best raku session I've had (see previous results here). I thought I would post pictures of the best two pieces. This first piece was textured with "Steve's Tool," and then I glazed it with Dan's Blue. I got some great color from the glaze. I glazed the fish vase with white crackle, and sprayed it with ferric chloride to give it the coppery orange color. Then I smoked the piece with saw dust to bring out the crackle.

He turned out pretty nicely, huh?

I accidentally broke the stopper I had made, but I think the fish is okay alone.

I found it interesting that the ferric chloride went to the edges and extremeties. The lips, fins and eyes, for example, are darker.

We had a great time on Saturday, even if it was incredibly hot with the sun and the gas kilns firing through the morning.

Out There

Lately I've been creating some really strange pieces in between my standard forms. I made a vase for raku, and when it was done, it looked like a fish to me. So I added eyes and fins.

Then I figured it needed a stopper. So I made another fish.

Now the big fish has a little fish in his mouth.

But the fish are not nearly as out there as this next piece I've been working on. It's a watering can with half a handle, with teacups attached.

The teacups also have pieces missing.

I'm not sure what its ultimate use will be; maybe as a planter, or even a fountain?

I painted the entire watering can with red underglaze, and I carved overlapping squares into the clay, exposing the natural color.

I made one full teacup that is detached from the watering can, and underglazed the inside red to match.

I also painted the bottom red. Why not? I'm hoping that the red doesn't burn off the pieces in the kiln.

This may become known as a "period" within my pottery career, but I won't hazard a guess as to what art historians would call it.

Raku Deux

On Saturday I did raku for the second time (see images from the first time here). Fran of Tin Barn Pottery and Manassas Clay is kind enough to host us at her little piece of heaven for the raku firing.

I took pictures of four of my pieces after they were glazed but before they went into the kiln. One was already in the kiln. And if I do say so myself, it's better than any of the five pieces I fired last time:

And speaking of rainbows...

The bottle above was fired in Dan's Blue glaze, and the two below were fired in Luster Duster. The bottle below came out a teal green, and the vase came out a metallic green with other colors mixed in.

The two pots in the foreground below are mine - on the left is another bottle glazed in Dan's Blue. I left the neck of the bottle unglazed, and it turned black due to the smoking process. The larger vase on the right is glazed in clear crackle, and right after I pulled it out of the kiln, I sprayed it with ferric chloride (which gives it a metallic sheen and golden orange color) and applied horse hair from my violin bow that needs to be re-haired.

The black lines that appear between the crackle comes from the smoking process. The smoke particles get into the cracks and adhere to the porous clay underneath the glaze.

You can see all of the smokey carbon inside the rim of the pot. Note also the smaller crackle lines inside the pot, and the white color without the ferric chloride.

After cleaning up the pots a bit, I took some pictures at home.

Detail of the Dan's Blue glaze.

You can see the reddish copper color at the bottom of this bottle. This is closer to the color that Luster Duster typically comes out.

The bubbles on this side indicate that the piece probably needs to be re-fired, and the glaze will probably react the way it should have.

Detail of the coppery section.

I think it was a good day. Despite the torrential rain and despite my relative inexperience, somehow I coaxed a grin from the raku gods.

Raku Magic

I participated in my very first raku session recently. I was convinced that raku is a firing process that is one part science and two parts magic. While my pots aren't the best, I really enjoyed seeing the process and the results. I look forward to my next raku experiences, and to improving my resulting pots!

Luster Duster glaze (above).

Rick's Turquoise glaze (above).

White Crackle glaze (above).

Dan's Blue glaze (above). The following are images of the process: Raku at Tin Barn Pottery.

We placed a few pieces at a time in the kiln.

They became almost molten, as you can see below as they raised the kiln.

We used long metal tongs to lift them off of the bricks, and depending upon the glaze (and the type of magic we wanted to perform), we would place them in buckets of water to cool or metal cans with newspapers and sawdust to smoke (below).

Definitely magic.