On the way to acrylic painting class last night, I took a detour to go by the ceramics lab. At the same time as my painting class they have a raku workshop that I'd LOVE to be in - the instructor (who had taught ceramics in the LAUSD system for almost 30 years) was about to start firing and doing the final reductions on some wares! I came back with a friend later and we witnessed the process - absolutely magical! the wares (ceramics) are heated to around 1800 degrees for a few minutes... then the kiln is opened, and they remove the red hot wares and put them in metal trash cans full of paper, leaves... anything flammable... a big flame erupts and it burns for a while. they put the lid on the can and let it smolder for a while... then, pull the piece from the ashes, clean it up and voila - a gorgeous unpredictable piece of pottery!
While I looked around I checked out the shelves to see if I had anything done... and I did! one of the extruded bowls I had made was out and I LOVE it! - ceramics is a process in experimentation for me - not knowing a lot about the glazes sometimes produces happy accidents - and this one I am very pleased with!
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