Carl & Weston, the amazing workshop leaders for our annual raku firing
Work is around 1900 degrees when we remove it with tongs.
Glaze is like molten lava on the surface of the ceramic walls.
Ceramic work with traditional Japanese crackle glaze gets cooled quickly with water quenching, spraying, and old-fashioned blowing onto the surface. The cooled glaze quickly cracks and separates no longer fitting the surface, leaving black cracks along the piece where carbon from the fire darkens the clay.
A post-firing reduction atmosphere happens when work is put into trashcans with combustible material, catching fire, then covered with lids, suffocating the work. The stubborn fire tries to keep burning, looking for oxygen in the glazes and clay and pulling out oxygen molecules, in turn creating metallic effects by transforming copper and other metallic oxides into copper.
Covering and cooling the work
Quenching in water and snow
