“What’s up with Sue”, you ask. “She hasn’t posted anything new here in ages.”
Well, I’ve had a really busy August and finally feel like I can take a breath. My hubby and I went to our studio/farm/cabin in SE Minnesota for the long weekend. The weather was fabulous so we had a great time. Then last night we headed to Wisconsin to have birthday dinner with my son Zack. My baby turned 21 yesterday!! At 6’2″ he’s not really fond of being called my baby – can you tell by the scowl on his face?
Over the weekend I had an opportunity to work on a custom order that has been taking me longer than it should. A customer who previously ordered some horsehair raku pieces has placed another order. One of the reasons it has taken me a while to get to it was because raku clay is very different in color than my normal clay. The raku clay I use is very white while my standard clay is a red/toasty brown. So before I could start the raku pieces I had to clean everything I would use so the standard clay didn’t contaminate the raku. This is probably the cleanest my wedging table has been since it was installed several years ago. (I’m not much of a cleaner which is sometimes a sore subject at home)
Batts and tools also got a good cleaning because even the slightest dark clay could cause a funky shadow on the horse hair raku.
Here are the thrown pieces on drying boards. After drying they’ll be bisqued and then they’ll be ready to go through the raku process. It’s a very dramatic process as red hot pieces are removed from the kiln with large tongs. Horse hair is draped over the red hot pieces. The hair burns and leave a wiry pattern on the piece.
Maybe I’ll have a post with photos about the raku firing in the near future.