Raku

Sara, Robin and I did a raku workshop this weekend, along with 8 others at Goodson Rec Center. We spent an intense, 11 - hour day glazing pots, crawling through a window, waiting, fighting flames, crumpling newspapers, cleaning sooty pots, breathing smoke, dipping our hands in black sooty water, waiting. It was so worth it.

Raku is an ancient Japanese art, that has been totally changed here in the US to mean using a gas-fired kiln to heat pots/melt glaze to 2000 degrees, then put said pots into a combustible material, let burn a short time, then reduce the oxygen to the fire causing beautiful colors to emerge on the pots. We hung out in the courtyard of the rec center, where a makeshift propane kiln with a 50-gallon drum cover heated our pots. That part of the process took anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending on how hot the pots were before you put them in, how many pots were in the kiln, and what glazes were used on the pots. Glowing hot pots were transferred to trash cans filled with newspapers, where the rest of us fed the fire then smothered it with trash can lids. The smoke was horrendous, think campfire smoke, all day long, with newspaper with lots of glossy ads burning. Who knows what we did to our lungs on Saturday? The trash cans were allowed to smolder for a good 30 to 45 minutes with the pots inside, then we were able to see the results. We went through this whole process about 6 or 7 times (I lost count!)

We used a variety of glazes, of which only the texture was guaranteed, not the color. As you can see in the pictures, they turn out quite metallic and colorful, but is totally random. Well, it depends on where in the kiln the pot sat (near the flame, how hot, etc), what glaze was used, how long the pot sat after the kiln was opened (it took about 5 minutes to unload the kiln into the trash cans) and how quickly the flame ignited, and how much smoke was created, etc etc etc.

I loved the earthiness of it all, watching the kiln glow, glowing orange-yellow pots, putting the pots into fire (!), digging the sooty pots of of the ashes. Hanging out in the beautiful Colorado autumn weather! (It was in the high 60's that day - it so could have been snowing!) A connectedness to the process you don't normally get from pottery.

And best of all - the closest thing to instant gratification you can get in pottery. We went from bisqueware to completely glazed in one day!Raku pieces are not food safe - not water safe anyway. You could use food if you don't have to wash the item - like for a candy dish or what not. But they are basically decorative. And wow, what colors came out! So different from regular glazed pots.

These pots are by many different people - I'm not saying which are mine. (Big hint - the big beautiful pieces are certainly not mine! ;-) Some of these might be given as holiday gifts, so I don't want to ruin any surprise!

Did a few videos to show the process of going from kiln to trash can.