About Raku Firing

The Japanese word raku means pleasure, ease, comfort. With a capital 'R' Raku is a type of Japanese pottery that is fired at a low temperature, cooled quickly (without all the fuss and fumes of a long wood or oil firing) and is popular with tea ceremony aficionados. It was originally referred to as 'Ima-yaki' literally 'Now-ware'. (see this link for more) Back in the 1950's when there was an exciting cultural exchange between potters of the East (Japan) and potters of the West (England and USA), the idea of low temperature firing and quick cooling was combined with blackening the porous clay in a bed of hay or leaves or other flammable material, and the American Raku style was born. This was primarily the work of a particularly inventive potter in California named Paul Soldner. There are now many American style Raku potters worldwide. Meanwhile the original style Raku ware is still being made today, passed on generation to generation in the official Raku family. There they have simply black raku, and red raku, and caramel colored raku ( Ohi-yaki) is made by the Ohi family.

Michelle's raku process, while standing firmly in the Western camp, does sometimes step back over the line into the more conservative Japanese Raku style. Regardless of Eastern or western style, her approach is to form pieces out of a clay body that can withstand quick cooling. White or red clays are used. The clay is bisque fired to make it strong and glazed for low temperature firing. The piece is then thoroughly dried and preheated in an electric kiln. This prevents unnecessary heat shock. The piece is then transferred with tongs to the raku kiln outside. The raku kiln is fashioned from a small electric kiln on a base of firebrick and is fitted with a gas burner. The kiln top is modified for gas by cutting a hole about 5" in diameter. Before the preheated ware is transferred into it, the raku kiln is preheated to the temperature needed to melt the raku glaze (about cone 08). After about 15 or 20 minutes in the kiln, the glaze has melted and the piece is removed with tongs. Here the difference between Eastern and Western methods must be noted. The Western method is to place the red hot pot in a bed of flammable material, say leaves or hay, covering it quickly with more leaves or hay, and clamping on a solid metal cover to keep in the smoke and prevent the material from flaming up. After a few minutes or hours or anywhere in between, depending on the effect preferred, the piece is removed from its smoking chamber and placed immediately in a bucket of cold water to arrest the re-oxidation process. Reduced copper will remain red, and the clay body will remain black. Many variations are possible, most of which take advantage of the effect of the smoking chamber on the still fluid glaze, metallic oxides, and porous clay body. The traditional Japanese Raku approach is more "raku", that is: easy. The piece is taken from the kiln with tongs, and doused to cool it, with no smoking chamber visited in between. Thus, although the raku process, East or West, is quick compared to the wood-firing or even the gas or electric firing, it is more unpredictable. With all that handling with tongs and the drastic heat changes, perfect pieces are few and far between. Potters do love a challenge! Especially when fire is part of it. Raku ware still remains "now-ware".

Raku ware usually smells smoky for weeks or months after firing, often has deep cracks and pits in the glaze, and is porous, so that it is not sanitary for general food use. Yet it conveys such a poetic ambiance of antiquity, we seem to love it for that. It has survived the trauma of the fire and the violent changes of temperature, and we love it for that too. And of course, its varied surface quality is as beautiful and interesting as one could find on a leaf, stone, flower, or seashell. Raku ware, therefore, is mostly to be enjoyed as an object of art, rather than to be used for everyday meals. Raku is lovely for wall tiles, flower vases, treasure boxes, or sculpture. Raku bowls can be used for tea, or even for tea ceremony, particularly if the smoky residue is not present. Some small sculptures, especially if the clay is burnished, do very well in the raku process unglazed and smoked, but not doused in water, and reproduce the look of sawdust or dung firing, or traditional low-fired black ware.

For additional information go to 

http://www.paulsoldner.com/writings/American_Raku.html or http://www.raku-yaki.or.jp/honshitu-e.html