a day of Raku

Today, I spent the whole day at Montpelier Arts Center, doing a Raku firing. This is done outside, because when the ceramic piece reaches red hot, molten temperatures, we remove it from the kiln, using asbestos gloves and tongs, and place it into a garbage can filled with flammable materials. The very hot piece, ignites the material; we put the lid on and let it sit while the smoke roils around inside. After about 45 minutes, it's cool enough to remove. The smoke makes interesting patterns on the object and the glazes mature in sometimes unexpected ways. I love Raku precisely because the end result is always a surprise. There is a lot of waiting around during this process and the Raku kiln only holds a few pieces, so the process takes all day, even though this time there were only two of us firing. Saturdays are open studio days, so other students came and went. Those of us staying all day brought food and there was continuous snacking. Today we had lots of donuts (3 people brought them), but some healthy food as well. No one went away hungry!