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Sugar/candy Raku


PeterH

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Has anyone out there successfully done sugar raku? If so, can you tell me what post-firing treatment you used,

and what the results looked like.

 

I've tried several times using the usual smoke/reduction bin (as for naked raku), and got a very dark two-tone grey.

This sounds like it could be subtle and sophisticated, but wasn't.

 

Regards, Peter

 

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When I do horsehair firings, I sprinkle sugar on the pots. The sugar leaves a black mark where every grain hit the pot. It is quite pretty. I rub my pots in coconut oil post firing to alter the color slightly and make it slightly more smooth. Other potters I know use tile sealer on their pots to make 'em all shiny. (this is fired to ^012, removed from the kiln while hot and have had granular sugar thrown at them.)

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Peter. 

I've never used sugar in raku. Perhaps you are thinking of black firing, where sugar is thrown into the kiln at the top temperature, and the kiln tightly sealed. Any gaps allowing air to enter will result in grey patches.

Cheers.  Graeme. .

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Thanks, but the sugar raku I'm interested in is a variant of the 2-part naked raku process, in
which the refractory 1st coat contains sugar. Normally 2-part naked raku leaves black "crackle"
lines. On the other hand sugar raku -- from the few photos I've seen -- leaves black patches,
often with some sort of halo effect.

 

Overall effect is something like the left-hand pot in

http://tinyurl.com/pzubofy

 

Every few years I'd try again using the normal 2-part naked raku process, and got a really ugly

pot in a mixture of black and charcoal greys.

 

Last time I tried cooling it in oxidation, with more interesting results.

 

Firstly tried quenching as soon as it came out of the kiln.
post-34897-0-85350500-1397502586_thumb.jpg

 

Then letting it air cool sitting on a brick

post-34897-0-71858900-1397502627_thumb.jpg

Different, but nothing like the pictures I'd seen.

 

Finally I tried to repeat the second experiment, but botched it. I put it on short damp grass to cool, and

it had fallen on its side by the time I got back.

post-34897-0-90697400-1397502744_thumb.jpg

Obviously it had seen a mixture of oxidation and reduction.

 

So, I'm interested to know how other people cool their sugar raku.

 

Regards, Peter

 

For completeness.

Fired somewhere in the range 1030-1050C.

Slip was china clay 3, flint 2, sugar 2 by volume. I also tried a 3:2:1 mix but it was rather faint.

 

post-34897-0-85350500-1397502586_thumb.jpg

post-34897-0-71858900-1397502627_thumb.jpg

post-34897-0-90697400-1397502744_thumb.jpg

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Peter, I'm not entirely convinced that the example photo you've posted there is a product of sugar raku alone, or maybe at all.  I think those pots are Geoffrey Swindell's work:  http://www.geoffreyswindellceramics.co.uk/  Maybe drop him a message and see what he thinks?

 

I think the results you've got are something.  The only bad result would be if nothing showed up at all, since that's the only result you couldn't have learned from (aside from complete success).

 

Do you keep a firing log?  They're very helpful in figuring things out over time.  If you're committed to mastering this technique, I would start by recording everything you do every time you attempt it, right down to an accidental sneeze you made over your kiln during firing.  Play with variables, one variable at a time.  You've decreased sugar, now increase it.  Play with the slip resist recipes you use.  What does it look like when the sugar isn't fully dissolved or the solution is super saturated?  What about when it's completely dissolved?

 

In my experience with ceramics, doing exactly what one potter does, especially with raku, doesn't mean you'll get that potter's result.

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