Thanks Everyone!
Leleliz, Im just putting my raku fired mugs on ebay, Im hoping to get the regular
glazed mugs on the TC marketplace soon.
Tobor, I hope to fill your invoice as soon as possible.
Here are some pics from the raku.
For those of you who arent familiar with Raku firing, there is a little description
and play by play. If something is incorrect or you would like to add something, feel free.
4WDtiki and MadDog, I hope you enjoy this!
We were fortunate enough to raku at our friend Tami Burwell's studio in the foothills
near Calistoga. First we start by warming our pieces in an electric kiln to help
the heating process and make sure all glazes are dry. Here is the gas fired kiln loaded and getting hot.
The kiln will get to about 800c to about 1000c. We keep an eye on it through the
hole on the top. When the glazed areas are glossy looking or even starting to bubble a little
bit, thats usually a good indication they are ready to pull. In this pic our garbage
cans are full of newspaper and ready to go.
We pull the lid and one by one pull each piece out with tongs and place them in the cans for
a "reduction". A reduction is a process where the red hot clay catches fire to the combustible material
in the can and the carbon from smoke is sucked into the clay leaving it black on the unglazed areas.
We all take turns pulling the pieces out, filling the cans
with newspaper and lidding the cans and moving them away
to burn and smoke. Once the lid is pulled it is a pretty rapid procedure.
Here is a Therm mug being placed in a can.
Burn! Burn! Burn!
"Uhhhh, fire Is cool" -butthead
We put the cans away from the studio to smoke out.
The first load out has some crackle glazes and some
copper luster. Raku is a Japanese firing style usually used for a
tea ceremony. The pieces are usually hand built using lead glazes.
A quick peak at wikipedia says an american potter named Paul Soldner
developed the western style of raku by adding the reduction process,
creating big contrast in the crackle and unglazed areas with carbon.
Here is the original "Irwin" sculpt and a modified "frank" decantor in
the back.
Here is a "Therm" decanter in copper matte and some copper luster
pieces.
Heres what I came home with.
"Frank the mugs cousin" decanter with celedon glaze.
"Irwin" skull mug with white crackle glaze. Original sculpt.
"Frank the mugs cousin" PNG inspired decanter with white crackle glaze.
"Square Bob" with white crackle and copper glazes. Inspired by Bob, Bosko, Notch,
Squid, Bai and of course Gecko's Lava Bob. Respect to all of you!
"Therm tower" with copper luster and reduction lava top.
"Therm Tower" decanter with copper matte glaze.
An awesome day Indeed. We are trying to organize another sometime this month.
If any body is interested in these mugs, I will have them on ebay soon with
links on the marketplace. Thanks for looking :)
