rakukuku

Probably the carving step of my hand building. My little figures are hand formed as pretty much pinch pots, then carved and refined after they set up a little. Really like the carving part. 

I posted a photo of my new shelves, full of pots at a show, while you were in Cambodia. Not sure if you saw it. One of my goals was to get my stacks of plates off the ground level shelf. They are now one level up from the ground. I've done three shows this year and plate sales are through the roof.
 

Ok here is a question. Do you work in other forms of art like painting, drawing or whatever? How much cross over is there to your ceramic work?   

Well I studied art and ceramics in college and knew I always wanted it as part of my life. But felt the need to get a decent paying job in the business world and got an advanced degree. Interestingly, the creativity of my art background was very helpful in the business world. I was a creative problem solver.  Having retired from business I jumped back into ceramics asap. I really don't know what I would do all day without it. I am a sculptor and hand builder and don't do the wheel any more though I used to. Used to raku a lot but now am doing more high fire as I get more comfortable with the glazes. I am always looking for some new technique to try - Obvara being one of them that was fun. 

Well I studied art and ceramics in college and knew I always wanted it as part of my life. But felt the need to get a decent paying job in the business world and got an advanced degree. Interestingly, the creativity of my art background was very helpful in the business world. I was a creative problem solver.  Having retired from business I jumped back into ceramics asap. I really don't know what I would do all day without it. I am a sculptor and hand builder and don't do the wheel any more though I used to. Used to raku a lot but now am doing more high fire as I get more comfortable with the glazes. I am always looking for some new technique to try - Obvara being one of them that was fun. 

Well I studied art and ceramics in college and knew I always wanted it as part of my life. But felt the need to get a decent paying job in the business world and got an advanced degree. Interestingly, the creativity of my art background was very helpful in the business world. I was a creative problem solver.  Having retired from business I jumped back into ceramics asap. I really don't know what I would do all day without it. I am a sculptor and hand builder and don't do the wheel any more though I used to. Used to raku a lot but now am doing more high fire as I get more comfortable with the glazes. I am always looking for some new technique to try - Obvara being one of them that was fun. 

I consider myself an oil painter and I've done quite a lot of it, however my main talent probably lies in drawing. At one time I was successful enough as a botanical watercolorist to trade them to my dentist in lieu of paying my bill. Also I've written a few unpublished short stories, design houses and gardens strictly as a hobby, and have gotten rather good at landscape photography merely as an adjunct to building a file of things to paint. My artistic interest tends toward science fiction and using my experiences and imagination to depict the future in various artistic media. Also, at the moment I'm focused on art jewelry with strong post-apocalyptic themes, using "permanent" materials including pottery.




 

We do kids raku at our studio and there are rules. The kiln is stationary with a top hat so easy to pull stuff than reaching in. Its connected to natural gas and we keep  a lock on the lever so no one can accidentally turn on the gas. 
 
All the kids have to stand behind a certain line and there is an extra person who stands next to them while the instructor pulls pots. The job of the extra person is to lead the kids back into the building if it gets too smokey.
 
The kids help prepare the cans with paper. I always make sure the cans are covered and no loose paper can blow around during the firing process. keep extra paper in a covered can.
 
I wear a welder's jacket along with my gloves and heavy shoes. The welders jacket is fire retardant, not 100% fire proof but better than some old sweat shirt. I sometimes use a heat mask though it doesn't fit well. 
 
Make sure no paper is hanging out the top of cans.  Always close up kiln as soon as pulling is complete.  Let stuff cool in the can longer than you might otherwise. Have a selection of just a few reliable glazes. 
 
I use a little self standing cone 06 to judge when its done rather than looking at the surface of pieces. It works pretty well if thats your glaze temp. Also sometimes use a pyrometer just so kids can see the temperature. 
 
In our adult raku we require someone be a "spotter" for the time someone is pulling - even if experienced. The spotter just watches the pull to make sure the puller does not fall or encounter difficulty. There is a hose available nearby. 
 
All this has worked so far. The kids stuff gets glazed the week before so its really dried out before being fired. 

Well the short answer is "until its done".  Raku is not so much about time as it is getting to the right temperature. Many raku glazes are formulated to fire to cone 06. One can peek in the kiln vent hole and see that the surfaces are all glossy and beyond the bubble stage. We have taken to using a little self standing cone 06 to get consistent results and I don't like peeking into the hot kiln any more than necessary. 
 
Our raku kiln is pretty good sized to it can take as long as two hours to get to temperature. we run it fairly slowly until its past quartz inversion and then I was taught that you can blast it up. We have industrial natural gas so we never need to fully open the gas valve or it shoots flames out the top. We also raku kids stuff so take it slowly at first because some are sort of thick.
 
I have seen schedules that suggest temperature increases of 3 degrees per minute or something like that but I don't do that. Does your red bronze have a suggested firing temperature? We have one that goes to 06. Different kilns fire faster or slower than others.  GL

Well I am strictly a hand builder and sculptor of animal figures. I used to raku a lot so porcelain was only for small figures and I could get plenty white with b mix with grog. 
 
But lately I am high firing most stuff and the b mix has a grayish tone in reduction and I like a more pure white. Not for translucency - just using under glazes and clear or other glazes, all at cone 10.
 
So I have started using Dave's porcelain from Laguna. My pieces are all pinched and hand formed and I abuse my clay a lot - pushing it around and changing positions of part of it to get what I want. The B mix accepts this easily. Porcelain not so much but the Dave's does it about the best. But I still have to be more careful and really dry slow to avoid cracking. So I guess I am not scared of it but respectful and cautious. I still like the feeling of the b mix better 
 
We do have a new opaque white glaze called Butter White that may get me what I want on the b mix. We shall see. 
 
If anybody knows a good porcelain for hand building I'd love to hear about it.  

I think all these flutes are beautiful. Love the color variations.
Last year a man came into our gallery (an off the grid hippy type) with a clay flute he had made. He used a local natural clay known as blue goo which is low fire. He make the flutes and essentially fired them in a campfire. They clay was not refined and being low fired had low shrinkage. That enabled him to tune them while greenware. Gotta say they had the most beautiful sound. Really spot on.
 
Maybe paper clay would help you with less shrinkage and better tuning. But others are right - these are not for classic orchestras but for one's own playing.  Nice stuff.  

I used to use it a lot in raku to make little dots then cover with clear glaze. under glaze seemed to run under the clear raku glaze - I think because it was 80% ghersly borate which is a powerful flux.
 
I use it now for a dull black next to a shiny black. The commercially made black wax is not available here anymore so I make my own with mason stain and regular was. It settles out and you have to mix it a lot. Our tile people use cureda secca a lot on tiles that they make with olive oil and mason stain.

Well I am really lucky to be living my dream. Retired from the business world, full access to a  large well equipped group pottery where I can do what I want. Ceramics supply store nearby where I can just go buy what I need. Dear Husband who supports what I do and sometimes even helps. Three fun dogs. About the only thing I could wish for is elves to clean up my clay messes. I am a messy artist and accumulate junk. Gotta work on that one. 
 
Even on rainy gloomy days like today I need to remind myself that there is always clay waiting for me.  Rakuku

love the vermiculite idea. Gonna try it. I have done some similar things with sand in socks. Could probably use lots of things as long as it doesn't hurt if a bit gets in the clay.   I also roll up newspaper and wad it into shape as a base for things. 

Please get well soon and stay off of those walls!!!! Take care.  Rakuku

I did a fair amount of single fired stuff to cone 9 when I was a student about a million years ago. My instructor told me to look for glazes with a higher clay content so they would stay on. Sprayed the glaze on slowly on the leather hard piece and the glaze would shrink with the drying post. This worked pretty well. Can't remember how i did the insides.  It can be done.  GL

Well I once made a blue merle moxie but it was raku fired. I used a commercial low fire grey glaze. I often had trouble getting a true grey in raku as it would take on a greenish cast.  In high fire we have a charcoal grey glaze and I can put black underglaze beneath it and bits of white over it. This dogs often have brownish areas so leave some parts for that.   gl   Rakuku

*Drools*
 
How tall are those and how much clay did you use?
 
 
This one is about 14-15", but thin-ish walls and a heavy-ish bottom.
I'm challenged, I admit it. It takes me a good 20 minutes to pull maybe 10-12 pounds of clay which is my limit.
Younger and stronger potters would pull that amount more like 18".

I still make drums, rattles, udus, ocarinas, whistles, and other aerophones (and for my smart-a friends, an aerophone has nothing to do with being able to make calls from an airplane).

Here is one that I finished lately as had mentioned before. The glazed piece had to be out so quick, I did not get a pic of it. Oh well.

I brush on glazes a lot. We bisque to cone 06 or 05, apply glaze and then high fire to cone 10. The bisque ware accepts the glazes fine.  hope this helps. Once in awhile I re-fire something that has already gone to cone 10 but needs a touch up. Its always hard to get the glaze to stick and the only way to do so is to warm up the piece so the new glaze will dry.   So choose a bisque temperature below the final maturity level. 06 is pretty common.   rakuku

well one day I was eating a little packet of tuna with a spoon. because tuna stinks, i didn't want to put the packet in the inside trash at the studio so I took it directly to the dumpster. A friend saw me walking away from the dumpster with a spoon in hand.  She said "I hope walking away from the dumpster with a spoon does not mean what it looks like".  LOL, no I do not eat out of dumpsters but would not be above grabbing something I thought was useful. 
 
There is a scrap yard near our studio and we all cruise by there looking for interesting found objects.   rakuku

Well I was doing some stannous chloride fuming in raku and you have to place a special can over the work while it fumes and it has to be done quickly! Stupidly, I didn't measure and one of the pieces was too tall and didn't fit under the can. A friend was filming me doing all this and all my cursing was caught on film and tape and he posted it to his friends!    At least I was wearing respirator so I was not recognizable. Actually , the work came out fine.  Even the too tall piece which I had to turn sideways.  It was funny. Rakuku

maybe you could have a lamp store do the wiring so it is ul approved. 
I heard a horror story of a  decorating business that somehow put a lamp on the floor that was not ul approved. It malfunctioned and burned down a 2M house and the business when bankrupt.
 
I know someone who just throws the lamp bases and sells them to a lamp store.   rakuku

Yep, I am crazy to feel fortunate to spend my days in a grubby little room full of  mud and mess and junky desk and shelves and a zillion little jars of underglaze, stains and slips in an organization that only I get. The thing is, all this messy junky chaos comes together when that kiln opens and treasures emerge.   rakuku