Tomorrow our raku trunk show with Southern Fired Designs begins.  This show will end Sat., 05/01/10. The artist behind Southern Fired Designs is Mike Stedman of GA.  Mike uses inspiration from his love of nature and science fiction / fantasy in his handmade clay and fiber pieces.  We have a table full of pendants and beads in varying shapes and colors that work well together or mixed with other materials. 

 

We get lots of questions here about raku.  I haven't made any raku pottery since high school, but here is the best way I can describe it.  The raku process is an ancient Japanese firing technique that results in unique color combinations on pottery.  Current artists use a post-reduction raku process.  

 

In layman's terms, the clay is shaped, dried, and then put through it's first kiln firing (bisque) schedule at a low temperature.  The pieces are cooled, and then special glazes containing metals, such as copper, are applied.  The glazed bisque pottery is then kiln-fired again at a higher temperature to adhere the glaze to the clay.  The red-hot pieces are removed from the kiln and placed in a fireproof container with combustibles, such as sawdust, newspaper, or straw.  The combustible material catches fire and the container is then covered and starved of oxygen.  The fire sucks the rest of the oxygen out of the container from the clay.  The oxygen reduction and the smoke created result in pieces that may be shiny, matte, metallic, colorful, coppery, or crackled, etc., depending upon what glaze mixture you use.  The markings and design on each piece are totally unpredictable.  The pieces are then usually quenched in water and scoured to remove unwanted bits.  Many pottery pieces break during the quenching phase, so the whole process is a bit of a gamble.  See the beautiful Southern Fired Designs raku pics below.