Raku Firing Experience: The Good Life Experience

Last September I was invited to spend the weekend in Wales at the Good Life Experience, and it truly changed my life! I wrote a post about it here, but one of the most magical experiences I had over the whole weekend was raku firing, something that had been on my bucket list for years since learning about it at university. In light of The Great Pottery Throwdown being back on TV, I wanted to share my raku experience (prepare yourself for some over the top grinning!) 

The workshop was run by a group of local potters, and there were several hand thrown pots to choose from. I chose to work on a little pot with a foot and some gouged markings. Raku is a somewhat unpredictable method of glazing and firing, so the emphasis was on working instinctively, not overthinking the process and letting the glazes act naturally - just the way I love to work with materials, letting their qualities and characteristics determine the outcome of the end product. 

I began by dipping the pot diagonally into the white glaze, then filled it and poured it back out to coat the inside with glaze. 

Then it was onto dripping the glaze and copper oxides. The pale blue becomes a rich turquoise with hints of copper depending on the firing, and the brown becomes a bright green. I wanted a vaguely painterly finish that followed the gouged marks in the pot, but I struggled with the definitely right-handed ladle and ended up embracing a much more haphazard finish.

Once we were happy with the glazing, the bottoms of the pots were cleaned so any glaze that may have got onto them didn't stick to the kiln and cause the pots to crack. They were them placed into the raku kiln and heated to a completely terrifying 1000 degrees centigrade which took about 20 minutes.  The workshop I took part in happened in the early evening, but they continued well into the night and we went back to watch the firing process happening in the dark which was quite incredible!   

Once heated to the magic 1000 degrees, the pots were very carefully removed and immediately placed into troughs of sawdust which ignite as soon as they come into contact with the scorching pot. More sawdust was thrown on top, and the troughs quickly sealed. It's this process which causes the glazes to crackle and the unglazed parts of the pot to become black thanks to the carbon residue from the burning sawdust. 

When the pots come out, they were quickly plunged into cold water to cool them before we set about cleaning off the carbon left behind on the glazed parts, revealing the finished pot and seeing how coppery the oxides had become! 

I was pleased to see some of the turquoise areas of mine had become a pleasingly bright copper around the edges. I decided to leave a little of the black residue on mine as I quite liked the contrast it gave.  

It was the best fun, and I'll treasure this little pot forever! At the moment it's hidden away (out of reach of the cat) which is a bit of a shame, but I'm not really sure what I should use it for. I don't really want to plant something in it as the inside is so pretty, and it's not food safe. Maybe I'll have it out on display somewhere to remind me of that magical day in September! If you'd like to read more about our weekend at the festival you can find it here.

Spotlight: Raubdruckerin - Beauty Hidden in the Unexpected

Printmaking.

It's been something of a slow burner for me; I went to the inductions and I know the fundamentals of various techniques, but it's never been something I've been hugely interested in because I was always more drawn to the ephemerate or spontaneous mediums and printmaking always struck me as rather too planned and laborious. 

However, In recent months I've found my eye drawn to handprinted textiles and have been having a play with some lino cutting and the rather more primitive art of potato printing! I've absolutely fallen in love with it, and (despite a wayward lino tool gouging several chunks out of my hands!) I am now firmly aboard the printmaking train! 

During a recent browse, I came across 'Raubdruckerin' which translates rather pleasingly to 'consuming print.' It's an experimental printmaking project that uses found urban surfaces to create striking graphic prints on clothing, bags and paper - think brass rubbing with a wax crayon taken to a whole different level! 

The father and daughter team behind Raubdruckerin call their process 'exploring the surfaces of cities' to find the often overlooked beauty in apparently mundane objects. It reminds me of the time I went 'colour hunting' in London and saw the city as though I was looking through brand new pair of eyes! They're currently working in Berlin, Lisbon, Amsterdam and Paris but are hoping to tour Europe, and one day explore the surfaces of Japan! 

The nature of their technique: printing live, on site and with minimal equipment makes the audience part of the process in a way that could never happen in a studio, and (contrary to my old feelings about the medium) creates opportunities for 'communication, exchange and spontaneity. Of course, an initial print could be taken from the surface itself then re-prodcutions made at a later date, but the magic of Raubdruckerin's pieces is that they are all printed on site, from the surface and directly onto the item that will eventually be used. 

Add to that the anti-mass-production ethic, with all 'blanks' carefully chosen and minimal materials and equipment used, plus the fact that the pair also run street-printing workshops, bringing their technique to the attention (and ultimately fingertips) of people from all age groups and backgrounds, and I reckon they've got a pretty good thing going! 

I feel really inspired to take the camera, and maybe some paper and wax crayons out into the city and practice the art of looking - really looking, at what's going on around me! 

You can read more about Raubdruckerin here and shop their pieces here! All images are from raubdruckerin.de 

Currently Coveting - Wednesday Wishlist {The Magpie Edition}

Now, you may be wondering why on Earth this week is 'The Magpie Edition' , after all 'Back to School' makes perfect sense, but magpies...? As in the bird....?

Yes, magpies, as in the bird! Let me explain....

There wasn't going to be a wishlist post at all this week. I'm planning to put one together every other week from now on, and fill the gap with a different series, all about words and language. This is something I'm quite excited to start, but with a weekly wishlist, a recipe or tutorial, an interview thrown into the mix and now the addition of a language focused post, that doesn't leave much room for the fun, spur of the moment, real life posting I love doing too!

So, I decided to alternate between the two. I was writing my first post exploring a new-to-me word, and trying to think of a good title for this new feature. Wednesday Words occurred to me but I don't think it could be any more boring, and in any case it won't always be about words specifically. Anything else with alliteration made me feel a bit shuddery, and nothing else felt right, so I put the name to one side for a while and kept writing. Just as I was dropping off to sleep that night I was drawn back to the reason I love blogging, why I started in the first place and the inspiration behind the name 'The Salted Tail' - it's all about collecting things, ideas, memories and thoughts, playing with them, and sharing them. Quite suddenly 'The Language Magpie' flapped out of my subconscious and fluttered in front of me. Perfect! I really enjoy the notion of a magpie wearing librarian glasses and carrying a dictionary, flying around collecting pretty, shiny pieces of language knowledge!