Raku with horsehair pot

I was MIA in pottery for quite a while because I was running all over the place. And the very week when I returned was the week of the Raku party. I didn't have time to make anything in raku clay. But when I told Gail that I wasn't going to attend the party, she said I could try firing one of my B-mix pots instead. I was glad that I did! Coz here's what I got:

I was really glad to get the clear glaze to do all that crackling! Unfortunately, the crackling is mostly on the inside of the pot. The outside only has a few loud cracklines that look pretty unrefined.

I also tried using horsehair for the first time. Yes, it is real hair from the horse's tail!

So what happens is that when the kiln is at approx 1800F, my pot will be transferred from the kiln to the "horsehair station". (It is just a piece of brick on the ground for me to place my hot pot on.) I have a window period of a minute or so to "burn" the horsehair on my pot. All I have to do is grab the horsehair and let it touch the pot, and it will disintegrate and leave a black mark on the pot. Yup, the pot is that hot.

So the black marks you see are actually the horsehair marks. Mine are not so nice. I found out that it was because I was too greedy -- I grabbed a bunch of horsehair and tried to burn them all at the same time. It resulted in thick lines with no character at all. A better idea will be to burn them on one by one, in different directions. Ah well, have to wait for the next raku party...