As stated in the title, we will be trying Raku firing! This a new adventure for us as we have never tried Raku, so it will be a unique experience.
We will be doing this course in late December at Montsalvat’s Clay Talk in Eltham, Victoria, where we will learn about the techniques of Raku firing and glazing Raku pieces for unique effects.
We are very excited to use the new raku clay body specific to raku and learn new firing techniques.
Also we are excited to try “Raku firing”, especially considering the possibilities it could open up. Raku firing is incredibly unique, considering it takes handmade pottery to a new level with all the customisations you can make.
For instance, adding combustible materials to a raku piece of pottery when red hot creates different effects on the pottery depending on what you use.
Using leaves, hair, wood or even resting your pottery platter on sawdust can create a burnt black texture on the raku pottery. Or you can carve the piece of raku pottery for more texture differences between the high points and low points in the carving.
How cool is that?
Of course, we have all made pieces in preparation for the course. For example, we created a moon vase and some regular vases out of the raku clay. In addition, I made a platter, and we will wait for the raku to dry and bisque it when it is ready, so it is we are ready for the course.
After the raku pottery is bisque fired, its final firing is in a wood or gas kiln at Montsalvat, and it can be a relatively quick firing process, unlike a conventional glaze firing which can take hours.
The look of a raku piece of pottery is usually unique to raku because of its low firing temperature and the unusual materials you can use for effects.
Still, it could hold some similarities in texture (not in temperature) to a wood-fired piece of pottery, but we have yet to try wood-firing, so that would be a guess, but we do hope to try wood-firing sometime in the future.
Thanks for reading have a good one!
We will give an update after the raku firing and how we went! Remember to check out our socials (daily posts!) and leave a comment if you have something to add.
You can also check out our shop as we will be releasing some fired pieces soon and we may in the future make some raku pieces you can buy! Let us know what you think.