(no subject)
Tonight is fun at the Raku kiln site night for my pottery class. When we did this last year, it was a little like falling in love. Firing your own work is an amazing alchemy anyway, but taking part in all of the steps, and combining fire, and water, and cleaning the pots, and throwing newspaper into one of the bins is tremendously exhilerating.
Last year someone had brought a stereo, and was playing some sort of ambient electronica, which combined with the barbecue, and shared cake and wine, created an atmosphere unlike almost anything else. We felt like we could do ANYTHING. We were magicians, we were enchanters, we were amazing.
The raku process involves putting low temperature glazes on your pots, heating your pots until they glow almost white hot in a kiln, then moving them to a bin with newspaper and sawdust and putting the lid on, then, taking them out of the flames and the dust, and quenching them in a pool of water.
Every time you move the pot, it looks completely other, different to itself. When you finally quench it, and put it on the ground, the glazes shift and change before your eyes, you can see the process second by second. I think watching the process of becoming is almost miraculous, whether you're creating a pot with a blue glaze which spreads like petrol, reflecting light, or whether it's white glaze with crackle patterns that grow in like trees, framing the soft black unglazed areas.
Forgot my camera at home of course, so I can't document it, but just thinking about it makes me happy.
OK Flist, what process excites you, what fills you with amazement today?
(ooh, also, bytheby, hullfire, didn't you say you coveted one of my bowls? Which one? plotplotplotplot)
Last year someone had brought a stereo, and was playing some sort of ambient electronica, which combined with the barbecue, and shared cake and wine, created an atmosphere unlike almost anything else. We felt like we could do ANYTHING. We were magicians, we were enchanters, we were amazing.
The raku process involves putting low temperature glazes on your pots, heating your pots until they glow almost white hot in a kiln, then moving them to a bin with newspaper and sawdust and putting the lid on, then, taking them out of the flames and the dust, and quenching them in a pool of water.
Every time you move the pot, it looks completely other, different to itself. When you finally quench it, and put it on the ground, the glazes shift and change before your eyes, you can see the process second by second. I think watching the process of becoming is almost miraculous, whether you're creating a pot with a blue glaze which spreads like petrol, reflecting light, or whether it's white glaze with crackle patterns that grow in like trees, framing the soft black unglazed areas.
Forgot my camera at home of course, so I can't document it, but just thinking about it makes me happy.
OK Flist, what process excites you, what fills you with amazement today?
(ooh, also, bytheby, hullfire, didn't you say you coveted one of my bowls? Which one? plotplotplotplot)