October  2006    Issue #43
Published by
Gary R. Ferguson – Raku Artist
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In This Issue
* While the Smoke Clears – Books, Books, Books
* Hang Tags in time for Christmas
* Unstoppable Glaze 
* Two Halves of the Same Pot
* Global Warming with Raku
* Raku Links
* Workshops 
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* Two Halves of the Same Pot

Doug sent in the following: 
I have only been "pottering" since last November and have 
found that I enjoy Raku firing more than anything else. We 
only Raku fire once a month and I attend each one. We have 
a very limited inventory of Raku glazes available to us but 
the one I like the best is the Glossy Green. I always seem 
to have a problem with it – after removing the piece from 
the reduction chamber (garbage can with waded up newspaper) 
half of the piece will be very shiny and impart lots of 
color while the other half will be dull and maybe even a 
"bubbled" finish to it. We just had a firing last Saturday 
and the top of the piece was just beautiful with lots of 
color and was very glossy but the bottom had a very dull 
finish to it. Is there a way to make both top and bottom 
halves of the piece come out the same? I have your book, 
Raku Secrets http://www.rakusecrets.com and have enjoyed it 
very much.

Well, I can't know exactly what is occurring in these 
situations, but I can give you some insight that may help 
you out. There are two primary factors as you can guess: 
the firing process and the reduction process.

Generally in a Raku firing (because of the speed), the 
bottom of a piece get hotter that the top of a piece in a 
kiln. This can lead to runs on the bottom with the top 
just reaching maturity, or it can get bubbles on the top of 
a piece when the bottom is just mature. The bubbles are 
caused by gas escaping during the firing and the glaze not 
having a change to heal itself by reaching maturity. So the 
solution here would be to fire slower and soak at the final 
temperature for a little longer to make sure both the top 
and the bottom reach about the same temperature at the same 
time.

Now during the reduction process you can have two different 
impacts on the piece as well. When you place the piece into 
the reduction materials the bottom of the piece will often 
sit right in the combustibles, which can lead to creating 
marks in the glaze and more black marks from the carbon. 
Both of which can dull the pieces. The solution here is to 
use fewer combustible materials and also place one or more 
bricks in the bottom of your reduction chamber set the 
piece on to keep the piece elevated out of the reduction 
materials better.

Hope this helps. 

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Gary R. Ferguson - Raku Artist

(c) Copyright 2006, Gary R. Ferguson