Post #458924 by MadDogMike on Wed, Jun 3, 2009 10:47 PM

Thanks MP. I like my mugs to be more functional, but I may have to mess with Raku a little. The Community College up the street has a Raku kiln I can get access to.

A recently bought "Alternative Kilns & Firing Techniques: Raku * Saggar * Pit * Barrel" (great book) and am hoping to barrel fire my Kundu drum with some colored smoke. I bought some Iron Oxide, Copper Carbonate, and rock salt. I made up some test tiles and test plates (my daughter wants some rooster plates for her kitchen). They say to expect some breakage but mine was 80%, 4 out of 5 objects broke :(

"Max's Paperclay" slump formed and pattern incised. Burnished, incised areas filled with glaze, fired to cone 04 and then barrel fired. After cooling, cleaned and buffed with paste wax.

EM347 slump formed and burnished, bisque fired to cone 04. There is no glaze on this, the rooster was painted on with a powdered slurry of Iron Oxide (rust) and water. I would like to make another plate like this with an iron oxide woodpecker (rusted pecker :) )

EM347 tiles incised pattern filled with various glazes to test the effect.

Possible solutions:
Use a Raku clay with better thermal shock properties such as Soldate 60.
The plates were set in a bed of straw, the chemicals sprinkled on, more straw, then chunks of wood. It made a rip-roaring & long burning fire, maybe too much fire. Will try again with just the straw and chemicals.

Now I need to make more tiles and plates, wait for them to dry, bisque fire, etc. I'm not a patient man! :x :lol: