Let the Beauty of what you Love be what you Do...
~Rumi

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Pit Fire & Raku Results!

I love this part of the semester, when after 8 weeks of building, scraping, sanding & polishing... you finally get to see the final results of your efforts. Below, pictures from the pit firing~




Pots emerging from the fire~


Classmates looking at our freshly fired pots. There is generally a lot of pointing, ooohing & aaahing going on at this time.


I only had a few pots in this firing & here are my favorites~




We also did a couple of Raku firings at school~ below the kiln is being loaded.


Removing the hot pots from the kiln & placing them in metal cans with combustibles... generally newspaper and/or sawdust.



The pot is left inside for a period of time to reduce.


Testing pots over open flame.


Below, my faves from this firing~

Double click on any image for greater detail.



I have to admit,  I am partial to Raku firing & reduction of these pots. I think the surfaces achieved by this method are simply delicious!
:) 
While this class is over, I'll likely continue to build more pots over winter break, though most of my time the next 6 weeks will be spent focusing on creating more bears in my hand building class. I hope to have a series of pots & bear sculptures to present for the SFCC student ceramic sale coming up at the end of November! It will be my first time participating, so I'm anxious to see how it goes!
:)




6 comments:

Tammie Lee said...

oh! so fun to see them in the fire
after the fire
on your stove fire
each one is beautiful!

Barb said...

It's amazing to me that these pots can be used for cooking over open fire - they're beautiful and functional, too. I always love when you post the firing - it's exciting but also nerve-wracking. I like the graceful flutes you made on the Raku bowl. Waiting for snow here - I'm in Denver but even here, the weather is supposed to turn cold. (Today was t-shirt weather.)

Kate said...

How wonderful to use these beautiful pots in a functional way. I wish that we would be in SF this winter so I could buy one of your lovely pieces. I do so want to find a casserole dish about 3qt size. Perhaps we'll meet again! PS. I just returned from an awesome trip to Cuba.

Lori Buff said...

You're right, simply delicious surfaces. Your forms are very nice too, they all work together well.

Rick said...

That header just blew me away ! Makes me homesick for the Rockies I left behind.

Those pots are amazing - (love your 'delicious' description ;>) but what a great finish Raku firing achieves. I totally understand the oohing and aahing !

Nice work, Becky.

Annie said...

Hi Becky, Your kitchen looks so cute :-). These pots are stunning and the pot below in the last post is a masterpiece! You have come so far. Well done!
I miss you too! xoxo