Ceramics

Raku is the result of firing clay quickly.  It is removed from the kiln when it is red hot.   The piece is then set on a combustible material which ignites immediately.  A cover is tightly placed over the inflamed work and it is starved for oxygen.  This reduces the oxygen resulting in a lustrous surface.  The unglazed clay traps smoke and turns black.  While the piece is still very hot it is then submerged in water.  The thermal shock results in the glaze crackling.  These raku pieces are very interesting but not very functional.

Hand builing appears to be very basic. It can be.  Coil, slab, pinch and press molds are your basic hand building methods.  I use all of these but have put a lot of focus on "pulling".  When a potter makes a mug the handle is created by taking a little "carrot" shape of clay and stretching it for the handle.  The "handles" I make can be over 6ft. in length.   I manipulate them for my Tendril Sculptures that originally were inspired by the grape vine tendril. 

Learning to throw on the wheel is exciting and takes a little patience.  After years of working on the wheel, I focused on throwing large platters.  My goal was to create a surface that I could then draw and carve images on.  See my Raku platters.