RaKu MaNia

Pottery is a creative passion shared by many. It brings people together who are likeminded and equally passionate about the same thing. I recently had the pleasure of meeting a new friend brought about by a our shared love for clay and raku firing. Rhonda Morris lives about 30 - 40 mins from my home in Appin NSW and we met for the first time simply because we share an interest. We intially met via the American website 'Cone 6 & Other Ways With Clay' www.cone6pots.ning.com The founder of the website George Lewter was calling for potters around the world to host a raku firing day and invite potters to get together for this event. As it turned out, Rhonda and I are were the only two in the world that ended up getting together for a raku firing day. Rhonda and I had a lovely afternoon. We chatted, glazed pots then as the sun went down we set up for the firing. Despite a very windy evening, our raku firing was fun and a success. It is definately something that I would love to do again. Here are some pics of our firing.

Waiting for the Raku Kiln to reach temperature. This is a kiln i made myself. Details in earlier post on this blog.

What a beautiful sight to behold. Nothing beats opening the kiln and taking out red hot pots.

I was taking pots out of the kiln and Rhonda was adding additional reduction material and putting on lids

Fast and exciting!

Don't fall in the pool Rhonda!

Rhonda's pots straight out of the redction bins, prior to being cleaned

View of my pots in the reduction bin



My pots after alot of scrubbing!

 The next night and the following week, I did other firings on my own. Talk about hectic! I dropped one pot in the rush of getting them all out before they got too cool. Here are the results of some of those pots.

'Under the Sea Sculptural Pots' - Raku Fired



Detail of reduction on one of the 'Barnicles pot'



Detail of light reduction - Copper red in cracks

Japanese style Ikebana Vase - White Crackle, Raku Fired

Tea Light Candle Holders, Raku Fired - Copper Matt glaze with some nice reduction

Set of 3 Square Raku Fired White Crackle -  Art Deco Style Vases

Large Open Plate - Raku Fired White Crackle with Copper Wash highlights

Detail of Underside of Raku Fired Plate

Thanks to Rhonda Morris for a great day and for letting me know about the 'Mud Colony' via facebook www.mudcolony.blogspot.com