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nil novum sub sole...The old Romans insisted that nothing new was born under the sun. Even the old Romans can be wrong. Raku is a totally new art form born at the end of the 20th Century... Raku can safely be called an American art form even though Japanese potters for centuries used the instant firing process that is a typical part of this art. They fired tea bowls sometimes in portable kilns for use in their tea ceremony, which combined pleasures of the palate with contentment of the soul in the spirit of Zen. |
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But American potters in the 1960's added the exciting color palette that included vivid gold and silver lusters by introducing a high temperature "smoking" technique.
Raku pottery looks for potters who are stout at heart. Even though the clay is specially formulated to withstand the tremendous, instantaneous temperature changes from about 1800 degrees Fahrenheit to the temperature of snow, it requires that the work of many hours be committed to a possible failure. Few are the masters of the technique who can surrender a carefully crafted piece to the searing heat of the Raku kiln and be assured of a safe metamorphosis to a completed piece of art. After only minutes the pot will be brought to bright red heat and delivered by metal tongs into dried organic matter, most often contained in metal containers, where the superheated smoke explodes in violent combustion rendering the clay ebony black and the glazes in the colors of the rainbow including gold and silver lusters. After a few minutes this process has to be arrested by quenching the piece, often still red hot, in water or even snow. |
