Most of my gallery and commission pieces are fired with Raku glazing. Raku is a traditional Japanese technique of glaze firing linked to the Tea ceremony and has been developed over hundreds of years.
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Each piece of work is initiall fired to 980 degrees and then glazed with a clear raku glaze. They are then fired very quickly in a gas kiln until the glaze is molten at which point I remove them from the kiln. Once the glaze starts to crack (you can hear it pinging) I put the piece in a metal bin with newspaper and sawdust. When it is burning wel I cover the bin and let the smoke do its work. The final stage is to cool the pieces off and wash them to reveal the beautiful crackles. It is only then that I know how the piece has turned out and you can guarantee that no two pieces will be the same.
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