Raku Bowls

I’m still hobbling about with my injured ankle – which is slowing me down and I’m not able to spend as much time on the things that I show you on this blog.  You can’t safely wield a metal-working torch while sitting with your foot up!!  So instead I thought I’d show you what I made in a Raku class that I took last summer.
In case you don’t know Raku is a Japanese glazing technique.  You heat the pot up to 1000^oC in a kiln and then take it out while it is still glowing hot.  You quickly plunge it into an enclosed container filled with sawdust and allow the Raku glazes to work their magic.  The pots smell of wood-smoke for weeks after.    

We used some metallic-effect glazes….

And some crackle glazes…..

Because there are such dramatic temperature changes, you need to use a robust, gritty clay with this technique.  It was hard on the hands to throw pots on the wheel with such gritty clay!  But I did have smooth, exfoliated hands for weeks after!!