10.3.12

An afternoon of Raku Firing with Office Lab

Today dawned bright and sunny, perfect for an afternoon of ceramic novelty with my friends at the Office Lab in Via Narda di Cione!

As cold and rain had led to the previously booked event being cancelled I was delighted that I was in Florence in time to attend this one, and when I wasn’t watching Enzo lighting fires I had the pleasure of seeing this beautiful tree overlooking their courtyard.

Sunny day - the view from Enzo's courtyard

Raku firing creates a type of Japanese pottery most famously used as the tea bowls used in the Japanese tea ceremony.

Enzo and some of the other potters had already created a variety of hand moulded clay pots for us to use, which resulted in every one creating totally unique pots and bowls.

They were rather porous pots  – the result of firing at a relatively low temperature and the paint seemed to be absorbed at a tremendous rate. We were a good-sized group so we took it in turns for the paint and brushes.

All the colours used are lead glazes, which look innocuous but change dramatically once they are fired, as we were all novices nobody quite knew what they were going to get as a result of their efforts!

poring over our porous pots

Whilst this process was interesting and creative the explosive fun really starts after the painting – when we went out to the courtyard where the “cooking utensils” were steaming nicely!

Once the Raku kiln is heated Enzo rushes to add the pots

Once the Raku kiln is heated Enzo rushed around to add our pots, and then he was kept on his toes throughout the process, as after cooking the best results depend on removing the pieces from the kiln while it is still glowing hot and putting them into other fires to oxidise the glaze.

Additional receptacles for second stage of Raku firing

After the additional heating the pots are transferred to cold water to cool down – and Enzo got yet another job scrubbing off any pieces of burnt sawdust that had attached themselves during their second firing! Poor boy must have been exhausted by the end of the afternoon!

Enzo scrubbing down the glazed pots

All of the pots were greeted with genuine excitement as none of us knew quite what to expect from this process. Certainly there was a fantastic transformation from the pale pastel pots pre firing and the dark shiny colour which emerge as a result of the intense heat.

Pale pots pre firing

Brightly coloured pots after firing

Burning horse hair was the next part of the process for some people – a handful of hair was laid across or wrapped around the pot and set on fire – it burns fiercely and leaves a subtle shadow on the pot.

Bowl wrapped in horse hair

A further enhancement to the glazed pots is to wax them – this was the most surprising part of all the process as some of the waxed pots looked and shone just like marble after their wax polish – a really lovely affect.