I happened upon a sale of local ceramic artists in a funny way: I was going through my emails trying to clear out junk mail and click on “unsubscribe” links to try to slow the flood of future junk mail. I saw an email from the “Nextdoor” app, and thought it was a good candidate for deletion, as I never read those emails.
But for some reason I read this one, and something caught my eye: a local sale of pottery that very afternoon in a private home in Montclair, so I decided to drive over and take a look. The sign directed visitors to a side door entrance, which led directly to the basement, where the homeowner had her own ceramics studio, and the space was filled with her work and that of other local artists.
The piece shown here caught my eye, especially the surface quality with all of the cracks. It was labeled “Raku,” and while I had heard that term before, I didn’t really know what it meant.
A little research led to this definition: “Raku is a process by which pottery is fired at a low temperature and then moved while still hot to a separate and closed container with combustible materials (such as paper or sawdust). The pottery’s heat causes these combustible materials to ignite which helps to create colors and patterns in the pottery’s surface.” I also learned that the cracking as seen here comes from the drastic thermal shock when the piece is pulled out from the hot kiln and left to cool quickly in the open air, and this is a deliberate attempt to create crackling.
I hope I’m describing this properly, I haven’t done any pottery myself (other than a brief project in 8th grade art class), and haven’t done any raku … so if you’re reading this and know more and care to share your expertise, please do so in the comments section below.
I would like to find some more raku pottery and possibly add more pieces to my collection … I just think it’s really beautiful, and another aspect of this piece that I liked was the bronze-like glow of the interior glaze – see how shiny it is? I’m a total pottery novice but I really like this piece.
