Recent Work - Terracotta and Raku

We've had a busy week in the studio now that the weather is hot - Katherine and I did two raku firings over the last two days, with mostly successful results. For the first one, we used long dry grass for the reduction - you can see the pattern it left on my white crackle pot here:

We also used a couple of green copper-based glazes which gave some great 'copper penny' colour flashings. For the second firing we used dry pine needles which put out a lot of dense smoke and turned the unglazed part of the pots a deep black:

I've finished two large terracotta amphoras now and have started on another two - these ones have a rounded shape, including the rims and handles:

One of the great things about working from home at Brighton is taking your lunch break at the beach! Here I am yesterday checking out some of the rock pools and natural swimming holes on the coastline, just a couple of minutes drive away:

More photos on our Flickr photo stream, here.

Raku Firing

On Monday we tried a raku firing. The sun finally came out, after a week or two of wintry weather (very strange for late September!) and we took advantage of it. I decided to make miniature bottles as test-pieces for 6 test glazes and threw, glazed and fired a load of work in the same day, which was a lot of fun.

12 test pieces before firing

'Raku' means 'pleasure'. It is the Japanese art of quick-firing pots (usually tea-bowls) at a low temperature and taking them out of the kiln with tongs while still red-hot. They are then buried in sawdust to finish off the reduction, and dunked in cold water. The process is fast, risky, and exciting, both to watch and take part in. Usually one person opens and closes the kiln and sawdust bin, while the other person handles the tongs. Glazes on raku ware are often irridescent and brightly-coloured  in a way that you can't always get at higher temperatures. Because of the heat shock there is often a high breakage rate. Results are random and unexpected - but that just makes it more addictive - you get instant results, and you never know what you might get.

The four best pieces, after firing

This one is my favourite - I like the crackle effect around the rim.

Cat-to-pot ratio... to give an idea of the scale...