Windows to the world/ Raku Vessel

Raku

Continues to one of my favorite art processes. Today it was very hot here in Florida, over 95F. So working outside with a roaring hot propane kiln and drenched in sweat and smoke one must really love doing this!

I was very pleased with this pot. Taking it out of the smoking ashes the coppers and golds peaked out at me like a sunken Spanish treasure being found deep in the ocean. There are details I didn't notice until the glazing coloration brought them out. The white sections that look like emblems take on a form of a building and green areas look like tropical leaves.

I like the variety of texture that I added with my handmade stamps and floral cloth.

Someone in my class asked me it the building with windows was intentional and it was not completely. It is four separate hand made square stamps that made this section.

The bottom left corner shows the detail of a piece of lace I rolled into the clay. I love the way the copper and green met yet the texture stayed the same.

The Mighty Kiln

The kiln

It seems like a boring topic, but

it is where pots are born. I will never forget the first pot I made and took hot of the kiln still warm, it was like holding a baby, something warm and alive! After that I tried to make sure my students had that opportunity also. There are many types of kilns, gas fired, electric and wood fired. There are even other varieties in other cultures like dung heated kilns. The shape varies as well from square to round to octagonal, to arched, to an open fire with pots layer on the coals. They can reach very high temperatures depending on the glaze used or the cone melt. A melting ceramic cone used to be how the heat turn off was gauged. It would melt and then trigger a mechanism in the kiln to shut down. Now in the digital age that is not necessary, but the name continues...a cone 5 or 6 firing and so on. You can make your own kilns, there are books a plenty. Especially for raku, all you need is an old metal trash can, some fire brick, propane canister, and a bit of insulation...you are ready to go.