In-person course
in Amersham Maker & location details

Raku One Day Workshop

Description

We are very excited to be able to offer you a Raku Firing Workshop. Local ceramic experts Carol Read and Richard Ballantyne of R&B Ceramics have very kindly agreed to run this class for us at our Pavilion in Penn Street. As well as being our favourite week on The Great Pottery Throwdown… Raku is an ancient Japanese craft using a technique which enables you to glaze your work, fire your pieces and take them home all in one day. The number of items per person will be monitored and limited to 5 small bisque fired items (nothing over 12”/30cm high/wide) per person please. On this workshop you will be able to bring up to five bisque fired pieces to glaze and fire in the Raku kiln. You will glaze your pieces under Carol & Richard’s expert guidance, after which they will be placed in the hot kiln and observed carefully until the kiln reaches the correct temperature. Your pieces will then be removed and placed into a bin of combustible materials for ‘reduction’. Once the pots have been in the reduction bin for approximately 45 minutes they will be removed. They will still be very hot at this stage, but can be plunged into cold water before cleaning and taking home. Carol & Richard recommend that the pieces you bring that have been made from Raku specific clay, as this clay is more able to cope with the thermal shock. If you need help with bisque firing your work we can do that for you at an extra cost. Please let us know. Obviously with a class like this there’s lots of health & safety elements so we’d recommend that you wear a face masks when doing the firing. We also would suggest that you wear old, natural fabric clothes (not synthetics that are highly flammable!) and also make sure that your arms, legs and feet are well protected against any stray embers, etc. Please do also bear in mind that part of the workshop will be held outside and we can't always predict the weather!