Raku Firing  [deutsch]

During the raku firing, I place my objects in the kiln and quickly fire them to approxiamtely 1000 ° C, at which point I take them out with special tongs. Due to the temperature difference, the glowing hot pieces experience a thermal schock, causing the glaze to shrink and crack. This produces the distinguishing feature of Raku, referred to as craquelé. After at least 30 seconds, or longer depending on the size of the object, I cover them with sawdust. The surface heat of the pieces causes the sawdust to burn, which produces smoke. The smoke blackens the exposed surface areas of the cracks as well as unglazed areas. I leave the objects in the sawust for about 30 minutes to further blacken and cool. Finally, I remove them and clean the glazed surfaces with steel wool to reveal the craquelé.