I love Raku pottery. Using an ancient Japanese technique, potters turn regular stoneware into brightly colored pieces. Bruce Odell (above) demonstrated part of the raku technique at the American Artisan Festival on Sunday. Raku firing is a multi-step process:Basically, the clay piece is bisque-fired first to harden it. The potter then glazes it and fires it in a special raku kiln. When the piece comes out of the raku kiln, the potter puts it in a tub of combustible material, and the heat of the piece causes the combustibles to light and set the glaze. Bruce used what looked to be manure for this step.
The photo below shows a few samples of his pottery.
To watch a demo on raku pottery, to see more of Bruce's work, or to get more information on Odell Pottery, click here.
To watch a demo on raku pottery, to see more of Bruce's work, or to get more information on Odell Pottery, click here.
8 comments:
Wow, those are beautiful!
That looks really neat. There is no actual painting involved? It is just the combustibles that transfer to the pot when it heats up?
Very neat looking, I am not sure I have ever seen that type of pottery.
There is a certain type of glaze that they use in combination with the firing that causes the colorful reaction. I believe Bruce said that copper in the glaze is the reason this happens.
Beautiful!
blessings,
kari & kijsa
Very bright pottery! What an interesting technique.
I like your photos about pottery. They remind me of my youth when I watched my mother, who was a potter, using also this old (16th Century) Japanese technique. She would often get angry, because many pots would break in the beginning. Then she went to Japan for some months during the late seventies, where she learned how to keep the various phases more under control.
They are beautiful! I like the irridescent glaze on them.
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