This video demonstrates the process my Ceramics I students go through in constructing and cleaning their RAKU bottles or vases. I have them do smallish bottles and vases, as the outdoor raku kiln is pretty small, and I don’t want them to be tempted to do anything that they may use with food. These items will not be food safe after glaze firing. The raku construction is usually done early in our semester, and we bisque fire like normal when dry, We will use specific raku glazes (most are Amaco) and when the weather looks good- usually 2-3 days of clear warmish weather with little to no wind (blows out my kiln) we will take our pots outside to my outdoor gas kiln on our art patio. The firing takes roughly 35-40 minutes for each class bell. With 6 classes a day, I can usually complete all the firings within 3 days. It is a labor intensive process, but a fun and unique experience for my high school students. For the glaze application video, check out this link- we apply the glaze after bisque firing. • Glazing Raku Pots in C...
The method of building begins with a pinch pot. You can see a number of other videos I may have on creating pinch forms for additional reference. I show the addition of coils to add height to the narrow pinch form. I show a trick of twisting the coil ends in opposite directions to help keep the coils round. The top of the pinch pot is scored and slipped (I use water) and the coil is scored will it will sit on the pot. I trimmed the ends at an angle so the height would be flush. Blending is done thoroughly, usually with a dry thumb or a dry blending tool. I added a second coil, being sure to blend any creases or visible seams. Once the coil is added, I showed shaping the form by squeezing and paddling. Once the form is pretty much the way you want it, then allow it to get leatherhard. At the 19:00 mark, I have a screen to pause the video, if you want to wait to watch the second half until the form is leatherhard. Once leatherhard, I show the cleaning of it with shredders (from Mudtools- see my googledoc link below for tool links!)
After the use of the shredders, I show the use of the small (I refer to them as “baby” ) stainless steel scraper/rib, the yellow rib, and red rib - all from Mudtools- again, see links in my Googledoc. Toward the end I use a few Kemper Mini-Ribbon tools (in links) for carving a design. I then use a brush and water to clean the carving.
We are using Standard 259 RAKU (stoneware) in our class for this project. Although you can use any claybody for these forms, my Ceramics I students are doing a raku fired project for this. I don’t bother to show the glazes in finished form in this video, but I can do another one later which discusses the raku process.
For the great tools I used in the video (including the mudtools shedders, ribs, and kemper mini ribbon tools) check out this link to a live Googledoc I continually update with lots of my favorite tools on Amazon using my associate links! (also some non-amazon suggestions on here!)
docs.google.com/document/d/1X...
I am a public high school ceramics teacher at William Mason High School in Mason, Ohio. (Mason is currently the largest high school in Ohio!) As a potter, I have been working in clay for over 30 years, and I have been teaching for over 28 years, the past 20 have been specifically teaching high school ceramics. I love what I do! I have my own studio in my home basement, where I work on my personal pottery for my Etsy site; www.etsy.com/shop/KaransPotsA...
I started my RU-vid channel a few years ago, to make videos to help my students if they are absent and miss a demo, or if they would like to explore more advanced techniques independently. I have been amazed to reach such a wider audience than my own students!
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30 янв 2019
