Shaun Hall's Raku Ceramics Blogspot

I'm having a break from all the recent  firings to mix glazes and so forth and generally take stock. One or two beauties resulted from the last batch of Raku copper mattes- the best of the bunch being below. As always I am conscious of getting the kiln temperature just right- somewhere for me between 1040 and 1060- lets say 1050 degrees c then! The reduction always seems to work better then, although it is true you get gold/pinks at lower temperatures....it is more risky and elusive. Anyway can't wait to finish off this batch of  firings. I hope to have a try out with some saggar and terr sig ...

Tea bowls....it's a bit of a side line I'm developing...and some pleasing two tone Chawans have resulted. Some are carved on the wheel, others grooved- still learning- but they're fun to do.

I've been messing around with overlapping white and turquoise blue-copper glazes and some interesting volcanic-lava surfaces have developed. For years I've also stuck with single layer glazes in mainly copper blues or plain white- why I haven't done this before I really don't know! The future is "two tone.!" Check out the results below.

It's been a long while since I've had any work to fire- probably the first batch since the summer. So it was with trepidation that I have begun some new Raku firings. I've got a few commissions for people so this creates added pressure! At first the Copper matte results were a bit poor- a dodgy thermocouple meant that I was firing the kiln a  tad low at around- 1020oc instead of between 1040-1050- which always seems to give better results and a better chance of achieving a good oxidation and reduction during the cooling process. Once I had sussed this- and upped the temperature with the aid of a new thermocouple- the results have improved. That said the pots have been interesting, with a lot of deep copper blue- some gold flashing and a bit of red. Though not much this time around. Oh well- keep on going maybe I will get it right one day soon! More post to follow I am sure.