Sunday, 19 February 2012

Elective Project: CERAMICS 6. - NAKED RAKU - I.

Naked raku is a firing process, when we take a piece of bisque fired pottery and put a slip over the part of surface which we would like to have covered. This slip makes a barrier between the pot and the glaze so that they will separate from the pot after firing. Then we will cover this surface with a glaze. It is important to glaze only the surface which was previously covered with the slip.


After this we put the piece in a kiln:



After firing we remove the pice from the kiln and put it in a tin container with burning sawdust. Then we cover the container for a couple of minutes to allow the smoke to 'colour' the uncovered surface of the piece:



After the smoke process we remove the hot piece and put it in a bucket of cold water to allow the glaze crack more for an easier cleaning:


This is the piece after firing...


...and here it is after proper cleaning:


Here are some images of the pieces I made as a set. The images show each piece before and after the cleaning:





On the next images we can see the finished set after cleaning:



The naked raku is a very interesting way how to make an unusual surface on the bisque. It has matt finish and reminds me more about natural stone than a ceramic surface as I used to be more familiar with.

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