Today was the last part of the raku ceramics course I have been attending since late March – the firing. I made my way to the course center at 10 a.m. in the morning. 10 a.m. on a Saturday, really? Yeah, really. At the course center I packed the stuff I had made, an elephant, nine hashioki, and a sort of lame incense holder. Then we made our way to a cottage called Pohjanpirtti by the sea close to town. The venue was really beautiful, as was the weather, but the ocean view was perhaps not the nicest as the cottage faces Vaasa harbor. Three very simple kilns were set up and the firing process could begin. While we waited for the glaze to melt we set up a small picnic of sort, where everyone contributed with some type of food.

At the beginning we had some trouble with the kilns, as the temperature didn’t seem to rise up properly, so there was a lot of waiting and wondering. In other words the perfect opportunity for me to enjoy the sun for a while. Yay, I have a microscopic tan! As the glaze finally started to melt it was time to get busy. The items were removed and placed into big tins and barrels containing saw dust. The idea is to provide a reducing atmosphere for the glaze and stain the exposed areas with carbon. Then the items are placed in cold water to create a fast reduction in temperature and create a crackle onto the glaze. We also put a lot of items into a heap of snow on the yard. Yeah, you can still find snow here and there!

The most interesting part of the process was finally washing the items, revealing the final product. The originally green glazes had mostly turned into shades or red and copper and the beautiful crackle pattern was especially visible on the white glaze.

The most anticipated piece of them all, my elephant! In some areas the glaze got really bubbly, but I guess that’s the beauty of it. Rustic and very wabi-sabi. The colors of the glaze vary from white to shiny copper, maroon, dark red, and even bright orange.

I particularly liked the color and crackle detail on the ear.

The hashioki turned out really nice as well.

When I came home I washed all my items carefully, revealing the final details. Especially the hashioki had more crackle than I has expected. Summa sumarum I had a really great day and I hope I get to make raku again someday! Right now I feel like I’m living in a cloud of smoke though, the smell really sticks to your hair. Maybe I should take a shower, or is smokey hair sexy in that outdoors-y kind of way?