Martin has many, many more pictures, including lots of action shots as we put pieces from the kiln and into the metal cans with the straw, sawdust and shredded paper, but I thought people would enjoy a couple of before and after shots.
Most of the Raku was done in a "traditional" way with the fired objects placed into metal cans. Most of my smaller pieces were done this way. As a few of mine were a bit longer and very flat, we experimented with placing them within a pile of newspaper with enough bulk material (mostly paper) to mostly smother it and then let it cool enough to remove. I did remove one too early and with the added oxygen in the air, the newspaper pile caught fire. Placing the piece face down on shredded paper produced a piece very similar to the can versions. Looser contact within the newspaper produced the piece with the whiter edges. Placing it on ferns (picked, not dried) did produce a few faint secondary patterns within the glaze, but nothing noticeable.
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| Raku pieces before firing (gold=Copper Penny, white = White Crackle, blue = Lemon Not, green = Egyptian Blue) |
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| Closeup of piece, notice green (better view of Egyptian Blue) |
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| Some of the top newspapers already removed. |
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| All top newspapers removed. Layers with immediate contact carbonized. |
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| Flipped over to see glazed leaf impressions. Then taken, cooled in water and washed. |
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| Final pieces. Top right piece has whiter edges and more green from Copper Penny. |
