Raku Project

Turtle: 6 inches by 4.75 inches

Bowl: 5 inches wide and 2 inches tall

Project Challenge: Develop 2-3 related forms: at least one must be thrown, at least one must be an animal.

Raku firing is a low-firing process where the pottery pieces are removed from the kiln while at bright red heat and then they are placed into containers (we used trash bins) with combustible materials (woodchips and paper shavings). Prior to the firing process, the pieces are fired for a bisque firing and then are waxed in specific places where the artist would like the clay to be black. After completing this project and field trip I feel that I have learned more about the process. Learning that there are so many different ways to fire clay to get different colors and effects is extremely interesting.

Overall I am happy with the way my two raku forms turned out. Even though there is a part on my turtle where the glaze didn’t cover I think the darkness of the shell and how the copper looks on the shell helps the realistic image of a turtles shell come to life. For my bowl, I waxed some hexagons on the inside of my bowl to match the hexagon patterns on the shell of my turtle. Then I used the same glazes on each piece even though after the firing process the colors look different. Next time to create more of a relationship I would maybe do hexagons all over the inside of the bowl to match how there are hexagons all over the shell of the turtle.

The most informative part of this field, in my opinion, is when Cooper was going so in-depth on how the firing worked. Not only did he cover the temperature that the kiln reaches, but he talked about the science behind what was happening to the clay and glazes so we had a better understanding of what was going on. Along with that I really enjoyed the time we had touring the studio, that was my first time seeing a pottery workshop outside of school and I thought it was really interesting to see how people worked in that environment. And to get to see other people's pieces were really interesting. The only change that I would recommend is maybe having more time to walk around Portland and not have it feel somewhat rushed but other than that I feel that this field trip was very fun and informative at the same time.