One Day Raku Workshop

Third Branch Pottery Supply Raku: June 12, 2024

Raku is an ancient Japanese firing method, sure to get your adrenaline rushing! In this workshop we will explore several of the techniques used in raku to achieve beautiful, one of a kind pieces.

Each participant will receive a bag of raku clay to make pots to be fired during the workshop.

No jewelry/tiny pots please!

Clay will need to be picked up from the studio with enough time to complete work and have it bisque fired by your workshop date. If work is to be bisque fired at Third Branch Pottery Supply, it must be bone dry and ready to fire no less than one week before your workshop. Refunds or credits will not be given to people who do not have work ready in time.

This workshop is suitable for intermediate and advanced potters, from any studio.

First time raku participants will learn traditional raku glaze firing, the Obvara technique, One & Two Step Slip Resist, Horse Hair and Ferric Chloride and Foil Saagar. Obvara is a fun, unglazed finish where hot pots are quickly dunked into a fermented flour, sugar & water mixture and then cooled with water, leaving toasty random brown patterns. Using slip resist, the pots are blackened by smoke that penetrates through the cracks in the resist, leaving a stunning black & white crackle pattern. Horse Hair will leave whimsical random black lines and Ferric Chloride gives rust tones to your work. Foil Saagars will have you washing your pot with different sulfates or ferric chloride and adding random materials (copper wire, copper mesh, plant material etc.) and wrapping the pot in foil to be fired. This result is similar to a pit fire.

Students MUST have a NIOSH/MSHA organic vapor respirator and goggles if you plan on spraying Ferric Chloride for the Horse Hair technique.

Please wear closed toe shoes and natural fiber long sleeve shirt & pants. We will be opening kilns at 1500F and pulling the pots out...things are hot so care and attentiveness is paramount!

Bring drinks and snacks/lunch as well as a camp chair. Adult beverages are always welcome toward the end of the day.

BISQUE FIRING & TERRA SIGILLATA:

All pieces must be bisque fired before the workshop. They can be bisqued at Third Branch Pottery Supply or your own studio. Any pots to be fired at Third Branch Pottery Supply must be dropped off, ready to be fired, by the Sunday before.

We strongly recommend applying Terra Sigillata, to bone-dry pieces before bisque firing. This is an ultra-refined clay slip that can give a soft sheen when applied to bone-dry wares and, if polished or burnished while still damp, may give a high gloss finish. We will provide each participant with terra sig and an instructional video can be found here.

Anyone who has their work bisque fired at Third Branch Pottery Supply will need to pick everything up and transport it to Luke Iannuzzi Pottery for the firing.

All pieces must be bisque fired before raku firing.

FIRINGS ARE HELD AT:

LUKE IANNUZZI POTTERY

5711 E. WARREN RD

WARREN, VT 05674

(802-839-9650)

10am to approximately 5pm or until everyone's pot's have been fired