At Last, Raku!

I finally fired yesterday - so exciting! There were really remarkably few differences from the process I use at home. The oil-drip burner was fueled with kerosene, and had an electric fan. Their kiln is much wider and shallower than the one I use at home, so I was able to load all of the pieces I had ready at once, and finish them all in one firing. I have more that will be ready to fire Tuesday, but some are taller, so I'm not certain if I will be able to put them in without laying them on their sides. The firing itself took about 4 hours, which is much longer than the hour or so I usually take, and they only went up to about 850 degrees Celsius which is only about a cone 014 or 012, or around 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. The glazes I use at home fire to around cone 06 or 04, which is closer to 1800-1900 degrees Fahrenheit. We started the firing around 11a.m., and took everything out around 3p.m., and most of the time in between, I had nothing to do and was pacing like an anxious mother. When the firing was finished and we went to take everything out of the kiln, I found out that they usually sit the pieces out in the air to let them cool for a few minutes before putting them in the reduction, while I would usually put them directly in. They do that to let the glaze solidify, so it will not pick up any texture... on the other hand, most Americans seem to want that texture from the reduction materials! They use rice hulls for the reduction whereas I use sawdust, and they do not cover the pieces, instead just sitting them gently on top. We probably left them in the reduction for 2 or 3 hours - after 30 minutes or so, they told me I could take them out then, but if we left them in longer, they might get a better color. The results were certainly satisfactory after a longer time!

I took as many pictures as I could, even though it was a bit difficult since I was an active participant in the process. I also took a video when we were pulling everything out of the kiln, and even though it is not a very good angle, you should be able to get an idea of what is going on :)

When I arrived at 10a.m., everything was nearly set up.


All loaded and ready to go!


Lighting the burner.


A closer shot of the burner.


The digital pyrometer and thermocouple... I think every kiln I've seen here has these. How nice! But I fire my raku by sight at home, so they wouldn't be too helpful with that, at least.


At around 400 degrees, I walked by and noticed there was no more fire... because there was no more kerosene! The kiln probably dropped 100 degrees before they filled the tank and re-lit the burner, but it didn't seem to cause any problems.


844 degrees, ready to go!


The sound isn't very good here because of the lawnmower sounds and such in the background. But, you can see everything coming out of the kiln. You can also see when the lip broke off one of the pieces as I tried to pick it up - no worries, I saved the broken piece and it will glue back on nicely.


Waiting... waiting... waiting...


Voila!


All nicely reduced.


And the finished products, still needing some cleaning of course. I'm going to take some better pictures of them tomorrow, before I ship them home.


As soon as my pieces were out of the kiln and into the reduction, the staff loaded the kiln again with some of their own work.


I was surprised that they often glaze the entire piece, even the bottom, but they do make little clay stands to set them on which break off easily after the firing. I was also very surprised that they stacked these tea bowls, but there didn't seem to be any damage to the finished product.


And if you put a few little branches in here like this...


The kiln does this!


Admiring their finished work.

So there you have it. And, by the way, sorry for the delay in posting this. There were some problems getting the video to work, so even though I wrote this all out Sunday, I think it may not show up until about Tuesday or so.