A Raku demonstration at Little Myles, Stondon Massey

Belatedly. I thought I'd post some pictures of the Raku event we held at Little Myles Farm Pottery in Stondon Massey, Essex in September. This was organised by artist and owner of the Pottery Judy Cowan and resident potter/technician extraordinaire Tina Capener.

The Pottery is in a wonderful country location, with landscaped grounds, and the studio facilities are excellent. Much fun was had on the day- although results it was fair to say were mixed! We ended stacking up a lot of work in the kiln-on about 4 kiln shelves- not recommended- at one point a kiln shelf collapsed- although miraculously nothing was broken.

We used some local oak wood shavings for some of the reduction, alas I think it was a bit damp so this affected the resulting reduction lustre. However plenty of decent white crackle was achieved- and the copper glaze achieved a sort of lava-gunmetal finish. Not what we were expecting (and there was some disapointment)- but as I kept saying "this is Raku!" I can spend an entire day - the wind in the wrong direction.....a butterfly flaps it's wings at the wrong time... and it all goes "pear shaped." On the whole there were some good results and I think most people were generally pleased. Thanks to Judy and Tina for a lovely day- all the tea and coffee- and it was great to see the most original and talented work by the group's resident potters.

Comments

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