FIRING, cont.

​

Imagine the stress on the pot to be dropped in temperature so radically, so fast! In the traditional Japanese firing, the pot is then dunked in cold water to arrest the development of the glazing by “setting” the glaze, or is simply allowed to sit. In the westernized version of the raku method, the pot is placed on top of flammable material, such as wood chips, and then covered with a metal can. The wood chips burst into flame, using up the oxygen under the metal can, and extracting oxygen from the glaze itself, which gives the surface glazing the lovely reduction effect.

 

The glaze and the pot itself contract at different temperatures as they come out of the kiln and start cooling rapidly. The glaze contracts more quickly than the underlying pot, so it starts breaking up. This creates random cracks in the glaze--called crazing--that makes raku ware so beautiful and so recognizable. Some potters will rub India ink into those cracks to make them show up more clearly, but often the smoke from the burning wood chips does the job by itself.

​​

PITFALLS

 

Things that go Bump in the Night

 

When you walk into a gallery or store and see a ceramic sculpture or pot you like, you are not only seeing the result of years of hard work by the sculptor or potter to reach that point, but you are seeing a work that survived the limitless ways that a sculpture or pot can be ruined during the creation process.

 

​