A Family "Raku" Experience

Now this is really strange... right after I blogged about “Gilbert” the spider, he disappeared. It is as if he knew what I wrote…took the plunge and moved. No more spider webs in my face…in my hair…and no more guilt about destroying the beautifully spun web…and to think he was about to make a friend. Oh well!! On with life for both of us.

Last night we had some of our family out for dinner and did a “Raku” firing . My husband, Dan, is a potter and has just built a “Raku” kiln. Raku is a popular low-temperature, fast firing process that produces exciting, chance surface effects on ceramic ware…from a simple white crackle glaze to a surprising spectrum of color. Each firing takes about 20 minutes.

First, everyone had the opportunity to glaze their pot. Andrew of course, the meticulous person that he is, invested the most time getting a combination of glazes just so…squirting a bit of glaze here and another glaze there, until the pot was well covered. Everyone had fun glazing…yet, they had no idea what the glazes would produce. That is what is so much fun about “raku”, there is always an element of surpirise with the final product. You can affect, but you can’t predict the final outcome.

Dan set the pots into the kiln. He fired the kiln up to about 1900 degrees at which point the glazes became glassy. He used tongs to remove the red hot pots from the fire, placing them into a garbage can full of straw which immediately burst into flames…ya, this is the part Nicole didn’t like…way too dangerous she said. I have to say that for a split second it does feel a bit out of control. Dan smothered the flames by putting the cover on the garbage can. He let the pieces smoulder for about 10 minutes. When he removed the cover he pulled out the black sooty pieces and rushes them to the sink where he began to scrub them down. Everyone crowded around to watch as he uncoverd the beautiful, colorful, glassy finished pieces of art. WOW!!! That is all we were able to say as these beautiful pots emerged. It was amazing to watch. Tyler and Alyssa captured the whole experience with photos. They leave in two weeks for Japan and Alyssa wanted photos to show her students. Japan is the birthplace of “Raku”. Enjoy!