Pottery

Dianne Mahaffee

The Artist, The Art Teacher

Handbuilt Raku

(origin is Japan)

These Raku Items were made by hand from stoneware clay. Then, they were dipped into Raku glaze which has a copper and/or cobalt content. Next, they were placed into a kiln. When the kiln was near 2000 Fahrenheit the kiln was opened and each piece of pottery was pulled out of the kiln with long tongs and placed into a reduction chamber. The reduction chamber had crumpled newspaper in it which ignited when glowing hot pottery pieces were added. Quickly, a lid was placed on the chamber to reduce the oxygen so that the carbon from the newspaper and the copper from the glaze could make beautiful surface decorations. Some of the unique surface qualities include crackling, pebble texture, metallic lusters, stress cracks, swirls, craters, rainbow glow, etc.