Raku Party

We had a Raku Party last Saturday. It was an eye opener!

Raku (樂) (which comes from the Kanji word meaning "Joy") is actually a form of Japanese pottery. It is different from "normal" pottery as the pots are fired under low temperatures.

Also, the colours that turn up after firing are very unpredictable, but also very beautiful, due to the metallic nature of the raku glazes. "It is like opening up a Christmas present", says Gail, our pottery teacher.

So here is the process of Raku firing:


The big white cylinder on the left is the kiln. All our pots are in there, waiting for the temperature to reach 1850F.

We are standing by behind the metal dustbins. We loaded some straw inside the bins, so that later, when we transfer the pots from the kiln into the bins, the straw acts as a cushion. But more importantly, the straw is a combustible material which helps to create a "reduction atmosphere" for the glazes, so that the glazes can undergo a reduction reaction (as opposed to oxidation). The straw also helps to stain the pots black where there is no glaze, giving it a nice rich earthy colour.

(Oh the raku glazes have pretty fancy names too: Fergurson blue, Shiny Lizard, Blue Dolphin and Clear)

When the temperature reaches 1850F, Gail puts on her plastic mask and takes the cover off the kiln, exposing our pots. You can see that they are glowing hot!

As soon as the kiln cover is off, we use metal tongs to transfer the pots into the metal bins. Once the pots are in, we have to quickly throw some straw on top of the pot, and close the lid. The process is repeated every time a pot is thrown into the bin.

And then we wait for the pots to smother in the bins for 15 minutes, before we take them out and wash them in cold water, so as to plunge the temperature down and stop the chemical process.

And here are my raku pots!


I made this longish hexagonal pot using an extruder, which is very much like Play Doh's Fun Factory, except that it is ten times bigger, and ten times more troublesome to clean up...

Then I glazed it by randomly pouring the glaze down using a dropper. Thus, the black portions are the parts that are unglazed, contrasting with the coloured portions which are glazed with Fergurson Blue.

The colours, unfortunately, didn't come out as vivid as I hope them to be. As you can see, there is no "blue" whatsoever from the Fergurson blue... Only one portion came up with a nice metallic copper sheen. Even the black could be "blacker"...

Here is my other Raku pot:

It is a simple one with a clear white glaze. I splattered some copper carbonate on the inside of the pot. Most of it turned out green, not the copper red I was hoping for... but it was fun for a first try... :)

***

We only get to do Raku once a semester, so I will have to wait for three months before we can play with raku again... It is a lot of hard work, a lot of waiting, and a lot of smoke! We stood in the cold (approximately 4 degrees Celsius) from 11am to 4pm, and we still could not finish firing all the pots! I still have one last pot glazed in Shiny Lizard, still not fired as of Saturday... Gail said she will help us fire it on Sunday. I hope it turns out nice!