My decorative sculptures and tiles are all raku-fired. This is a traditionally Japanese firing technique involving fire and air.
I fire my pieces in an outdoor kiln to a temperature where the glaze completely starts to melt. The pieces are glowing red-hot when I carefully take each piece out with tongs and place them one by one into metal containers of wood shavings. The piece catches flame and I reduce the oxygen in the bins by throwing more wood shavings on top and closing the bin so as to cut the oxygen around the glaze.
This is how I get the wonderful bronze colours and the glaze crackles because of the thermal shock. There is always and element of surprise when I fire this way and it makes each sculpture truly unique.
