Raku Winter 2019

Raku vase by Amber Ryan

Most quarters, now that we are in the new building on the south side of campus, we do a raku firing at the end of the quarter. This quarter we had to shovel first, so we wouldn't be standing in snow. During the firing, students asked me what the bucket of salt was for, thinking this might be related to a salt firing. The uninspiring answer was that the salt was for the ice on the ground. We had a lot of snow and ice this year. 

Extruder bowl by Malea Esqueda

The raku firing process is lots of fun, but also fairly exhausting. We fired on Monday for the hand-builders and again on Tuesday for the throwers. It snowed on Tuesday morning, but not enough to stop us. About half the hand-builders were involved in the process on Monday. In fact, I was a little bit concerned about some of their pieces making it through the firing.

Raku vase by Austin Peart

The raku firing is a pretty intense process for the pots. We fire them up to temperature rapidly, then remove them, with tongs, when the glaze is molten. We take the pots out of the kiln and put them into a bucket of combustable materials (shredded paper, dry leaves). The materials light on fire and we close the top of the bucket to trap the smoke inside with the pot. As the pot cools, the exposed clay absorbs the smoke from the firing, turning any unglazed sections black.

Raku bird jug by Malea Esqueda

Some students took advantage of this effect and used wax to protect sections from glaze. Malea waxed the branches of the tree on her press-molded bird vase. Amber waxed what she says look like cow spots on her white vase and lines spiraling up her blue vase (the first image in this post). The contrast between the dry black clay and the white or blue glaze is striking.

Raku cow vase by Amber Ryan

Some of the students used copper based glazes. The copper in the glaze reacts differently when there is or is not available oxygen in the firing. With plenty of oxygen during the firing and/or after in the reduction bucket, the copper tends to turn green or blue. Without oxygen during the firing, the glaze tends to turn red. In the post firing reduction bucket a combination of reds and metallic coppers can show up.

Faceted vase by Ruby Mayo

We have several copper raku glazes in the studio. Two tend to melt to a glossy finish. On of those, the one we see in Amber's first piece tends to stay a teal blue with not much change to coppers and reds. The The other on Ruby's vase above goes green, red, blue, and metallic copper.  Our  third copper glaze does not melt to a shiny surface, instead it stays rough and even a bit crumbly. This is the glaze used on Ivy's small cups and lidded sugar dish below.

Raku tea set by Ivy Shearer

Several students chose to use a horse hair raku method during this firing. These pieces have no glaze on them. We fire them up with the other work and remove them when the other glazes are molten, but we don't put them in the post-firing reduction bucket. Instead, we take individual pieces of horse hair and apply them to the hot surface.

Horse hair coil piece by Anjela Sevilla

Since the pot is so hot, the horse hair begins to burn immediately. As it burns, the smoke is absorbed into the clay just like it would be in the bucket. Students can control how much horse hair they apply to the surface. The horse hair is burned off by the end, but the smoke from the burning hair is a permanent part of the pot (until it is fired again, or until it sits in direct sunlight for a few months or years).

horse hair extruder jug by Jennifer Martinez

During this last firing I was amazed that Jennifer Martinez's extruded jug survived. The pots go through pretty serious heat shock as they are cooled from 1800 degrees Fahrenheit to the outside temperature (about 30-40 degrees on the days we were firing). This heat shock, as well as the fact that we have to move the hot pots using tongs, can cause the pots to crack during firing. 

Horse hair coil piece by Anjela Sevilla

Angela Sevilla's horse hair pot is entirely black on the inside. That is because while she was applying horse hair on the outside she put some shredded paper inside and set a ceramic biscuit on top. The fire and smoke were trapped inside and had the same effect as the smoke inside the buckets for other pieces.

Pit fired and painted coil piece by Raquelline Llaguno

Raquelline Llaguno was the only student this quarter to choose to fire her work in a pit kiln. In fact, she was the only students in about the last 4 years to pit fire on campus. We set up a metal trash can with a few holes in it, loaded it up with shredded paper with her pot buried in the middle. Then we lit the paper on fire. It fired for several hours and created a variegated smoky effect on her burnished clay surface. Raqui then painted the yellow and red on the surface after the firing.

Extruder bowl (top view) by Malea Esqueda

Art Club Juried Show & End of Quarter Firing

Art Club Juried Show

Escapism Juried Show

Last week the YVC Art Club installed their juried show, Escapism, in the hallway gallery of Palmer Martin Hall. The show runs through April 23 and is open whenever the building is open.

Escapism 3D work, featuring lamp by Les Delzer, bust by Emily George, dinner set by Sara Lawrence, fox by Chelsea Blodgett

The show features work by high school and college students in and around Yakima. Some of the work was completed during classes and some was done on the students' own time. This show is not the same as the annual Department of Visual Arts Student Exhibition at Larson Gallery in May.

  

Escapism Juried Show, 2d work on display

This show was organized by Art Club students. This was the first year and we had over 50 entires including painting, drawing, photography, and ceramics.

fox and bunny by Chelsea Blodgett

 The four ceramic items in the show are all made by students in my clay classes this quarter, though only two were actually made this quarter. The fox, by Chelsea Blodgett, was build for the second project in my flipped hand-building class and was taken out of the kiln within an hour or two of when it was put into the display case for this show.

Frog vase and dinner set by Sara Lawrence

One of my intermediate wheel students, Sara Lawrence, created this frog themed dinner set during the winter quarter, too. Her frog vase and dishes feature a glaze recipe she tested this quarter during class. Her work was out of the kiln at least a day before the show was installed.

Last Firings of the Winter Quarter 

Reduction fired work in the gas kiln (before unloading)

Today is Sunday, but I went in to unload and load kilns both today and yesterday. My students were told that the last day to glaze cone 10 reduction work in the gas kiln was Thursday by 3pm and the last day to glaze cone 10 or cone 04 work in the electric kilns was Friday 3pm. I also warned students that I would be loading the kilns during the day on Thursday and Friday and once they were full, they were full.

Batman, by Humberto Urrutia-Jr (before unloading)

My students and I finished loading the gas kiln on Thursday about 3:10. There were a handful of pieces that wouldn't fit in the kiln at that point, based on how and what we had to load. Moments later, an intermediate student walked in with her 10" tall piece ready to load. She was unhappy when I told her she could load it in the "oxidation" firing in the electric kiln. 

Sculpture with copper red glaze in reduction by Jordan Miller

Some of our glazes look different when fired in a reduction atmosphere vs the neutral atmosphere of an electric kiln. Copper Red and Shino glazes are particularly impacted. Reds in reduction will look green and transparent in the electric kiln.

3D printed turtle pencil holder by Chelsea Blodgett

An extra firing in the electric kiln is relatively easy to add, because the kiln is smaller and the kiln can be programmed to fire to temperature. The gas kiln is larger and requires hourly adjustments to the gas, air, and damper during much of the firing process. I did not offer to unload that kiln on Saturday and reload it with one piece in it to fire all day on Sunday.

Lady with flowers by Autumn Nugent (picture taken from inside the kiln before unloading)

I did, however, end up loading and unloading more than expect on the weekend. Next week is finals week Wednesday through Friday, but I am presenting at NCECA in Pittsburg on Wednesday and Thursday, so I will not be here for finals week. The upshot is that I have adjusted our finals due dates and, by extension, our firing schedule.

3D Printed vase in high temp oxidation firing by Humberto Urrutia-Jr

At the start of the week I had anticipated firing one of each type of kiln (cone 10 reduction, cone 10 "oxidation", and low fire), but by midweek it was clear we had more work than that, so I loaded an extra cone 10 firing in the smaller electric kiln.

cone 10 oxidation fired vase by Humberto Urrutia-Jr

This small electric kiln was too hot to unload on Friday when we were loading the second cone 10 in our larger electric kiln. I knew that I would be coming in to unload it and reload it with low fire work on Saturday, but the kiln was small and the load/unload would be relatively quick. 

oxidation fired crab (before unloading) by Cigdem Collins

I had just finished loading and had started the second cone 10 in the electric kiln on Friday morning, when a student came to me with a problem. For context, most students had finished glazing already and I only had about 5 students finishing work during class that morning. I had already checked in with every single student about what they were glazing. They all assured me their cone 10 work was done and they were glazing only low fire work.

Coil build low fire vase by Margarita Cruz

The student who came to me with the problem had spent a couple of days very carefully applying underglaze to her sculpture. She had already assured me, twice, that the 24" tall sculpture would be going in the low temperature firing. I just had to figure out how to fit it and some of its larger friends. 

low fire stuffed elephant sculpture by Margarita Cruz

The high temp kiln was at a little over 200 degrees when this student came out of the glaze room and explained to me that she had glazed her work with the high temperature clear, instead of the low temperature clear over the underglaze. She couldn't wash off the glaze because it would wash off the underglaze she had spent so much time on. She couldn't fire the work to a low temperature because the glaze wouldn't melt and become clear. I happen to know, from other students being confusing about firing temperatures, that this high temperature clear glaze looks rough and white when fired at low temperature.

student coil vase, low fired

So, of course, I ended up coming in on Saturday to unload the small high fire kiln and load and fire the low fire work. The large low temp kiln I had loaded on Friday was too hot to unload. I came in Sunday morning to unload the low temperature work (both kilns were cool, but the smaller kiln was easier to unload alone) and load one last high fire with just this tall piece and one small friend who had appeared Friday afternoon. 

too much glaze on a thrown piece in the large high fire electric kiln

 Raku Firing

3D printed vase (which didn't survive the firing well) with horse-hair decoration

Last week we also ran two class raku firing days. On Tuesday, students in wheel classes were able to fire their work, but somehow I didn't get any pictures of it. On Wednesday hand-builders fired. The students really seem to enjoy using horse hair on their work. 

Horse-hair 3D printed and hand-built bunny by Nadene Orlando-Urlacher

A few students also took advantage of the raku glazes and one that was particularly nice was a vase by Chelsea Blodgett. She used wax resist for the black areas and white crackle glaze for the rest. Her coil-built vase was modeled on Ancient Greek vases, I believe.

Vase and cat mug by Chelsea Blodgett