Ceramics: Raku Class+Event June 28th&30th

[cmcooper0]

Do you like fire? Of course you do!

https://calendar.dallasmakerspace.org/events/view/6319

This is a TWO-PART Event! June 28th and June 30th.

Class on Thursday, June 28th: Students will learn how to prepare (glaze) their pieces for raku and about the firing process.

Event on Saturday, June 30th: We will be meeting offsite at a local potter’s house (less than 10 minutes from DMS) to use his raku kiln. We’ll kick back and enjoy a summer day/evening while catching things on fire! Exact time TBD (will be discussing with participants closer to the date).

What you will need:

• 3-4 pieces, 4"X6" maximum, of bisqued pottery. If you are new to raku, stoneware is a good clay body of choice. If making very small pieces you will need to also make a rack/holder to facilitate moving. Drop me a note and I can hook you up with some design ideas!

Optional:

*A small assortment of raku glazes will be provided at the Thursday class but you are more than welcome to bring your own.

*If you have a source for shredded paper, please let me know! We’ll also be bringing sawdust from Woodshop.

*If you have any old popcorn tins or small metal trashcans with lids that you don’t mind getting scorched, that would be excellent.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

[cmcooper0]

First we heat up pieces super quick and then, in spite of all rational thought, we open up the kiln and pick up red hot, molten glaze covered pieces with tongs! Then we plunge them in water or buckets of combustible materials to be even more dramatic with the whole thing. Awesome.

[meanbaby]

If you don’t take the Thursday class you reference, can you still use some of the Raku glaze at DMS? is it available to all makers participating in the Raku event?

[cmcooper0]

If you cannot make the Thursday class portion, please message me privately and I’ll let you know how you can still participate in the event!

[cmcooper0]

Additional Info: The class fee covers your firing costs. Glaze is a combination of Fired Arts owned glazes and member donation.

[kyrithia]

Re small raku containers

When I did raku in a class ages ago, I had some smaller pieces and it worked great to have normal steel food cans, like say canned veggies, of sizes that one would nest over another. Then we rowed the flammable-packed smaller bases up in a tub of damp sand. Drop in the whatever, whoosh goes the fire, slap a slightly larger can over it deep enough to bury edge in damp sand. Sealed great and was the right amount of oxygen to get great colors on small pieces

[nicksilva]

Raku pottery is my absolute favorite. Good luck. I hope to see great things. Wish I were there

[Julie-Harris]

If someone wants to play with small things, I have a lot of small stoneware bisque pendants that I’m willing to share. Someone would need to make a container for them, I don’t have the time. I’m looking forward to the next event - probably won’t have time for this one with everything else I have going on.

[Anette_Henningson]

Would slipcast pieces work for Raku?

[cmcooper0]

Short answer, yes. However, one thing to remember about raku is that you are putting a piece through a lot of stress. From the quick temperature change (doubly so with a thin/irregular slipcast piece) to picking up the piece with a pair of long metal tongs, a delicate piece is going to be trickier to shepherd successfully through firing. Personally, I wouldn’t go that direction for my first time with raku. Once you have a good grasp of the process, then it is certainly possible. (Adding kyanite to your casting slip can help with thermal shock but you’ll still have a higher percentage of loss.)

[meanbaby]

Slip cast and Raku would scare the crap out of me!

[Anette_Henningson]

He, he, might try it anyway, cast the bells super thick so might work?

[meanbaby]

For who the bell Toles