2010-06-12 Saturday - Joe and Melissa's Raku

Saturday Joe and Melissa had a raku and covered dish party.  Everybody brought a lot of delicious food, good cheer, and lots of pieces to fire.  Joe and Melissa were great hosts and made everyone feel very much at home.  We had a bit of trouble with the burner rig for the kiln, but once the spider was removed from the orifice, everything went much better.  A big thanks to Greg for diagnosing the problem and getting us going again.

It was quite hot and sticky and operating a 1700 degree kiln in that heat was a bit draining, but it was still a great day.  While Joe was worried that some of the pieces got too hot, several beautiful pieces emerged from the reduction buckets.  We discussed the fact that every kiln has a learning curve and you have to do several firings before you really know how it will perform with different combinations of clays and glazes.  It's raku and can always surprise you --it's the nature of the beast.  I think Joe did a fine job.

Joe grabbing a bite.

The kiln waiting for the first load

while the potters work feverishly.

Rae, Tina, Marcia, and Jane ready the pieces.

Tina applying the ferric chloride in her fashionable gloves.

Joe with his buddy Tank.

Getting to temperature.

Firing using a weed burner

while diagnosing the Ward burner problem.

The reduction can and the sand pit.

Greg putting his thinking cap on about the burner issues

while Quinn pulls up roots.

Jane heading to the reduction bucket...

... and there it goes.

Rae taking a piece from the kiln.

Joe making sure it doesn't get away.

Tina carefully transferring a piece.

Greg taking a well-deserved rest after solving our problems.

Horse hair pots!

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2010-03-14 Sunday - Raku day!

A bunch of us converged on Clayworks Sunday to raku some pieces.  There was a whole lot more going on there, such as people working on all aspects of their art, and Maggie even had a make-up session for one of her classes scheduled.  The raku had mixed outcomes (as is often the way of raku), but there were some outstanding results in the mix.  Becky had some really great results with her horsehair birds.  She also found out she really likes using feathers as well as horsehair.  Joe's pieces came out wonderfully and I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of them.  It's ok, Joe, I forgot to take one of my own pot.  Kim had mixed feelings about her saggar firings, but I thought some of them came out nice.  Expectations often rule our perception of the final product.

Greg, Joe, and Melissa take a break.

One of Kim's pots that I like.

The sky was a lot more friendly today.

First, the bird goes on a small sawdust "nest"...

Next, the horsehair is applied...

As more horsehair is applied, the patterns form...

Now multiply by twenty-four!

(or Four and Twenty if you prefer...)

Pete was busy making his really tall shape.

I really like it and the decoration works very nicely.

Chuck was working on his tall series.

I like this for completely different reasons.

Read on...

This is the previous one he threw.

I love the fluidity of this form.

It looks like we caught it in mid-wave in moving water.

Greg raku'd this fine looking couple that are joined into one piece.

It took him hours to layer on his glazes and it makes for rich results

that have a a lot of depth and subtle details.

2009-09-27 Sunday - Barrel/Saggar/Raku

I went to Clayworks on Sunday to help out with the barrel/saggar/raku firings and finished off three possible lids for one of my crackle pots.

Becky and Elaine loaded the barrel and started that firing before I arrived. By the time I got there it was smoking nicely and the pieces inside were at the mercy of laws of physics.

We did saggar firing in the raku kiln. We brought it up to ~1150 F like Andy Smith taught us at his workshop and the results were tremendous. Becky was thrilled with her birds and I think Nick nailed it when he called them "stunning".

Next up was the raku firing. We brought the kiln up to ~1750 F while we watched the glazes get juicy and then lay down. Becky and Nick were happy with their pieces but unfortunately all but one of Amy's slab pieces cracked. I think the earthen red she used could be part of the problem since it has no grog, and couldn't survive the thermal shock, but I will check with Greg Scott on that theory.

Becky also did some horse hair work on some of her birds and Cindy's cats. They came out nice, but we should have let them cool a bit more before removing them from the kiln.

In between the firings I worked on my lids for one of my crackle pots. I ended up making three very different lids to compare. I like all three of them for different reasons so I don't know which one I will pick.