Raku demonstration 21st Feb 2015

February 21st I did a raku workshop & demonstration at the Treehouse. It is a perfect venue, shelter from the elements, away from anyone who’d object to smoke, somewhere to have a cup of tea & warm up, plenty of running water, and inspirational and lovely! We had a great time & fired the kiln four times in the afternoon. Many thanks to all those who came & made it such a great event with your enthusiasm, and thanks to Cindie Reiter who took many of these photographs.

It took a few car loads to get all the equipment to the Treehouse

The treehouse makes a perfect venue

Everyone glazed some pots that had already been made & bisque fired

Bruno keeps a watchful eye on progress

The glazed pots ready to fire

The Raku kiln, sheltered under the treehouse

loading the kiln

watching the kiln & checking the temperature by eye

time to take off the lid

revealing the hot pots with viscous glazes

taking the hot pots out of the kiln

removing pots from kiln

putting the pots into sawdust

putting the pots into sawdust & covering them up

throwing more sawdust on the hot pots

emptying the kiln

reloading the hot kiln for the next firing

carefully placing pots in the hot kiln

taking the raku fires poits from the bin & putting into water to cool

watching the hot pots steal in water

a pottery lucky dip

taking turns to remove the hot pots from the sawdust

a helping hand

It gets smokey!

sunlight & smoke from under the treehouse

taking the cooled pots from the water

looking at the results

wet & sooty pot

cleaning up the raku pots

scrubbing the pots

a present for Dad

finished pottery

a selection of pots