Oh What A Night

If you are old enough to remember Frankie Valli, you'll remember he had a HUGE hit song by that name. It doesn't really have anything to do with anything except that I had a good night tonight at ClayWorks. And I'm old enough to remember the song so it came to mind as a good title for my post. (Didn't like the song that much really. The Four Seasons had many that were MUCH better!)
But it was a good night tonight. I've been looking forward to it for a week..and the day c-r-a-w-l-e-d by. I had a bird in the hand...waiting to fire in the raku kiln. He looked pretty icky going in. Waxy.



Never have had much luck with raku. But that doesn't deter me. In fact I see it as a challenge. There's something raku can teach me -- I know it -- so I blunder on. There were many pieces to fire tonight. Bird made it into the third firing. I said a little prayer for my friend before he met the fire. Looked pretty hot in there to me. Bird's body is porcelain. And I'd read that porcelain works well with raku if it's not too thin. Bird was fat and sassy. Still, I crossed my fingers. And I kept a close eye on him.



Next step? He had to spend a few minutes in a nest of newspaper strips, inside a trash can. I can always count on a moment of awe....during those scant seconds between the opening of the kiln and transferring a piece to the trash can. The pieces are always beautiful then. Orange/yellow...molten. As small as Bird was, I worried that I might drop him in transit. The distance from kiln to can was only about 2 yards but it seemed like 2 miles.



Bird made it through the firing. And emerged not as all as I'd planned. Copper from a nearby piece in the kiln jumped to my piece. I liked the addition of green, especially where it bridged the clear crackle glaze to Bird's underside. But the Red Luster glaze didn't work as I'd hoped. It pretty much burned away.



Still, this is the first raku piece I've done that I like. And I'm thinking of firing him one more time, next week, when I fire the cave art piece. I've never fired a piece twice so that, too, will be a learning experience. Stay tuned.