Sunday was another perfect day for a raku party so that's exactly what we did at Mudfire. It was a lot of fun with a perfect balance of new people and experienced raku artists. I brought a few pots with the multi-colored
terra sigillata surface treatment I've been doing lately. This is the first one that I've done using the woman form. I'm really happy with the way she came out and that she held together despite the thermal shock abuse that these poor pieces go through. The black lines are from the horse hair that burns into the piece after it's removed from the very hot kiln. To see the process go to my YouTube channel
here. I'll take better pictures of this piece to show you soon.
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| Horse Hair Raku Woman Bottle |
The people who raku with much more smoke and fire were having a friendly debate about which is better, more paper or less. The more paper side argued that they got better results from the bonfire while the less paper people claimed just as nice results with less smoke and clean-up. If you raku where do you stand on this debate?
Beautiful pot Lori!
ReplyDeletemore or less paper, hmmm.....
When I first started raku firing, I used a LOT of paper. Then I took a raku workshop at Penland with Steven Forbes de Soule and he uses very little paper. So now I am somewhere in between. I use one sheet of newspaper and then toss in a hand full of long strips. I leave the pots in reduction as long as possible, that's when I get the best results.
Thanks Tracey, I would have loved to have taken that workshop with him. I'll bet you learned a lot more than how much paper he used.
DeleteJust beautiful, love all the colors too.
ReplyDeleteIn the local pottery class we used strips of paper half full in a small can, let the paper catch on fire and burn a minute and we put a wet newspaper under the lid and close it up tight. Another raku artist around here was asking me if I knew where he could find some hardwood shavings because those would give much better results so I referred him to a pet supply store which had hardwood shavings, haven't heard back if he has tried them but his work is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHi Linda, that doesn't sound like a lot of paper to me, just a nice amount that won't cause the fire department to come calling.
DeleteYour friend might also have some luck at a shop that makes furniture or cabinets.
Very cool! I have only Raku'd Mica Pots, but am looking forward to trying Terra sig/Raku w/ some of my smaller sculptures. So many techniques, so little time! I'll check out your youtube channel. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Becky, I've never raku'd mica pots. You're right, so many techniques.
ReplyDelete