in the studio with charity: RAKU FIRING @ 1800 DEGREES FARENHEIT

ok ... the forms have been bisque fired!

here are a few pieces that were bisque fired. the third moai man and waves tiles are in the photo. as you can see, one of the tiles broke (on the lower shelf) but that is not a huge problem ... i leave room for unexpected results, that is why i created the tiles to work together or to stand on their own.

glazing begins! (ps. behind the table is the kiln that we use for bisque firing.)

for the sun & waves tower i used white crackle on the parts coming out (positive space) and blue galaxy for the carved out parts (negative space). i left the ledges of the waves blank with no glaze at all. any spot where there is no glaze will turn black due to the smoke (oxidation reduction atmosphere).

for this piece i used blue dolphin for the background, cobalt blue for the primary waves coming from the side, and dunkin caribbean blue for the ocean in the middle and waves below. then, i used white crackle around the border. i chose these colors because i wanted different shades of blue, and different surface qualities combined together in one composition; some parts flashing metallic and some parts matte.

i also wanted an aspect that would be very glossy, transparent and luminous... in one word, glass! anne helped me find an old light blue wine bottle to break and use the pieces to inlay the bottom section of ocean.

once i safely broke the glass inside a bag with paper,

i carefully placed each piece in the carved out space below.

... glass inlays are a beautiful thing !

the moai man is glazed with blushing sands, post pacman and secret sauce.

here two moai men are in the outdoor kiln ... waiting to have the top lowered. they are glazed with blushing sands, post pacman, and copper matte.

READY TO FIRE!!!

these are hot days to fire ... the sun is blazing ... the temp outside is high eighties .... and the kiln reaches 1800 degrees fahrenheit!!

whoa buddy!

once fired in the kiln, the hot piece is put directly into a trash can and closed with newspaper and sawdust inside.

this method was used for all of the pieces except the waves tile. instead of placing it into a trash can, the trash can was placed on top of the piece on top of sand, newspaper, and sawdust.