HOT action on a Friday night!
After I finished my oil change, I met up with My Friend Kyle(MFK), you know, to see what he was up to.
I cruised on over to Kaneohe, back to my old stomping grounds, back to where I learned my craft.
School is out right now, but hey! we're special.
Anyways, the kiln was a going:
That's a bottom loading raku kiln.
Bottom loading for the the whole kiln moves up and you can pull your pots right off the bottom of the kiln.
More on that later.
The kiln he's using is made out of wire mesh and refractory fibre so it's pretty light and easy to handle.
Raku fires to about the same temperature my kilns, only this uses gas to we can crank up the heat fairly quickly:
The procedure and meaning of raku has been Westernized, but the process is still fairly close.
Once the glazes flux and temperature is reached, MFK starts preparing the reduction cans:
Which are basically small trash cans lined with paper.
You can use anything that burns, the idea being to start a combustion in there so while the glaze is still fluxed, you try and pull some oxygen molecules from it.
Hence the reduction.
Okay, here we go!
Ready?
Wooohooo!
Hot action!
Those pots are at about 1900 degrees F!
Once they've reduced in the can, you pull them out to see what you got:
If you squint yer eyeballs, you can see the metallic patinas and the crackle in the white.
Banzai!
I used to do a lot of raku, not so much anymore.
Well okay, I don't raku at all.
Not if I can help it anyways.
Boy, now I smell like smoke.
Time to load up as we leave early tomorrow morning.
Going to the art fair!
3 comments:
"Hot Friday Night Action" Eh?
I bet that post title increased your blog hit rate...!!
-Trevor
Trevor! We regulars know anything "hot" probably contains the word kiln somewhere. It is "pizza" that is racy!
Trevor, I try, but it doesn't work.
Steve A, you are a loyal follower.
Your membership card and password are in the mail.
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