Raku
Skowhegan Area High School
Pottery Class
May 19, 2000
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Raku Skowhegan Area High School Pottery Class May 19, 2000 |
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Raku. The first Raku pots were made in 1598 in Japan. It was and still is a low-fired glazed pottery. The Japanese technique involved taking a red hot pot out of a kiln, and holding it in the air to allow the glaze to smooth out. Then they dunked the pot in water for a quick cooling, which would produce large patterns of crackle in the glaze. Additional crackling was made by sprinkling water onto the pots. The Japanese method only subjected the pots to oxidation but in the mid-twentieth century, Paul Soldner of the United States developed Modern Day Raku. He used a post reduction process by putting the red hot pots in a combustible material such as sawdust, wood chippings, and leaves, and then finally dunking them into water to seal the effect. Modern day raku is characterized by pots with a black clay body and a delicate black-stained crackle effect. The glazes are often white, yellow, blue and turquoise with beautiful shades of gold and silver from the reduction of copper. |
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