My lovely students came over today and fired the raku kiln. Ronnie and Kristen, we missed you! These girls are so great, they make me laugh, they make me cry, they keep me smart because they are so hungry to learn and are growing so fast with their work. The piece above was made by my one of my newest students, Bridgett who has been doing pottery for less than a year. Not too bad, huh! This post is mostly for them but you are certainly welcome to enjoy it as well!
Charlotte made this very cool cup that looks like it is buttoned up. It is a patchwork of pastel underglazes with a clear glaze over. Very nice.
This was Amber's first coil pot. Bad news is that it cracked quite a bit. Good news is that it cracked quite a bit. If this were functional pottery it would be a tragic loss, but with Raku it's a work of art! We all agreed that we loved it, Amber had to leave before we pulled it, and I am kinda glad she did, because the first sight of your piece being not what you intended can throw you for a moment until you decide ok, maybe I like it after all.
Ronnie couldn't be here, too much fun in Colorado, and she is resting! But what a cool idea she had to make these holes in this tray and then fill in with various glazes. It's like effervescence on a tray.
Bridgett tried out some glass and got some nice results and Charlotte got lots of these very nice carved vases. Charlotte also made the cutest turtle jar I have ever seen but my photo of it was over exposed. She had some nice pieces with burnished terra sig too and they were under exposed. Like I said, I are not photographer:)
So, it was a good day, everyone was happy and got some good results. We tried some new things with terra sig and underglazes and got some good results with that as well. Also learned a few lessons. I urge everyone to wear long pants, closed toe shoes, gloves and long sleeves for safety and today I proved why. Bridgett reached across the top port hole and her glove burnt, that would have been her skin and then I knelt down on a hot brick just pulled from the kiln and burned a hole in my jeans, that would have also been a hole in my skin. The kiln is a hot mofo at 1900 degrees and there is lots of fire everywhere. You cannot be too safe when you fire a Raku kiln. And absolutely NO beer until the kiln is shut off! and that is what I am doing right now, beer and blogging, YES!
9 comments:
I wish I was in your Raku class!! HoW FuN!!!
Beautiful pieces for this raku firing, students seem to have a good teacher to get results so cool...
A lot of fun AND good results!
What more can a person want?
O, i know, a good teacher, looks like that was taken care of too! :-)
Great results & your students' work is so wonderfully creative! Good teacher!
Thanks guys! It's easy to be a good teacher with these women, they are all so creative, keeps me on my toes!
It's funny, I went down this morning and the kiln area was so nicely cleaned up, even the brushes washed out, which I sometimes forget to do until the next day. I smiled and thought, what a good teacher they have had to clean up so nicely, haha!
I too wish I was in your class it looks so fun, you are so encouraging to your students, love all the work. For the first piece what is the black collar at the top is that a different type of clay or what was the treatment, I love the look of that and the contrast between the black and the color.
Linda, the black collar is just the Raku clay that was left unglazed. When the piece goes in to the combustibles anything that is left unglazed goes black. We also had some nice results using white terra sig and leaving it unglazed, you get a smooth, shiny black.
ohhh a great day at traceys...
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