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The Newsletter for Raku Artists and Raku Art Lovers In This Issue ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ This month's topic is creativity, so I hope you find some new techniques to help you take your work in a new direction or apply a new twist to your existing work. The poll results from the Feb poll indicated that 100% of the subscribers are artist, so I will definitely continue to focus the newsletter in this direction. I appreciated the donations that have been submitted in the last month.
This really helps support this newsletter and the website. If would like
to help support this newsletter, please consider a donation of any size
via PayPal at: I will look forward to your feedback, suggestions, questions, and article ideas. You can send these to me at: editor@garyrferguson.com. Gary R. Ferguson ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ I had high hopes for getting back into the clay in February but that didn't happen. I had the flu for almost 3 weeks (yuck!) and then was out of town on business for a 1 week. That pretty much killed the month and is part of the reason the newsletter is a little late this month. Hopefully March will be better. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ Creating a Creativity Kick Starter (CKS) One thing I have done is to get a large three-ring binder and use it to hold examples of pottery, art, and designs that I find appealing. Many of these pages come from the Internet. When I find a site or picture on a site that I like, I print it, and put it in my CKS Book. It's always a good idea to print anything you find on the Internet that you want to eventually refer to later versus just saving a bookmark, because the Internet is very dynamic and the content you find today may not be available tomorrow. Over time your CKS book may become quite thick. Mine has grown from 1 inch to 3 inches. You can organize the content however you like. Then when you are looking or inspiration you can start paging through your CKS book for new ideas or directions to take your work. You may find a handle you want to experiment with on your style of mug, or an interesting foot treatment you want to try on your vase. I am always amazed at the picture I find in my CKS that I have forgotten about. I don't recommend exactly copying a piece, but instead try to take the essence of the style, apply your style, and create a new form. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ Piepenburg Workshop IV - Creativity and Misc. This is the final part covering the Piepenburg Workshop and includes some of his thoughts and techniques on creativity. One quote he stated was, Another quote was, One thing that Piepenburg does to keep his work fresh it to switch between wheel throwing and hand-building. He will throw on the wheel for a few months and then spend the next few months hand-building. Piepenburg also throws with music, but music without vocals. He feels
the vocals causes you to focus too much on the music instead of the clay.
His favorite CD right now is "Good Dog - Happy Man" With Raku, Piepenburg tries to make the piece "strong" enough by itself unglazed so that if the glaze turns our good, it is just an added benefit to the piece. A creativity exercise he suggested was to pick 10 "power" words and then create a poem using all 10 words. Then create a piece that symbolizes the poem. Piepenburg also shared his idea of there being 4 basic types of work: Personal Image + Personal Form, Personal Image + Traditional Form, Traditional Image + Personal Form, and Traditional Image + Traditional Form. Traditional refers to the standard, typical, or generally accepted. A traditional form may be considered mug or teapot. Personal refers to something that is purely your own. A personal form would be like the abstract sculptures that Paul Soldner has created. It is not a traditional form, but once you see one, you know who created it. Piepenburg suggests that everyone should take a look at their work and decide what category their work applies and then attempt to create work in another category to spark the creative juices. ~~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Q: Can Raku pieces hold water? A: Yes and No. Yes Raku pieces can hold water, but since the clay is not vitrified (fired high enough to seal) the water will seep through the clay. Now using a glossy glaze on the inside will tend to slow the seeping, but generally Raku glazes craze and the water will still seep. To ensure a Raku piece will not leak water, the inside of pieces can be coated with a standard water sealer. This should ensure a watertight Raku piece. ~~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Clear Crackle You want to apply this glaze fairly thick and it needs to be fired a little hotter than some Raku glazes - somewhere around 1850F-1900F. The piece should be pulled from the kiln and then held in the air for 30-60 seconds and then placed in a reduction chamber with combustibles. Make sure a lot of smoke is produced to seep into the cracks. You may want to "burp" the reduction chamber a couple of times while adding a little more combustible material each time. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ Creative Pottery: A Step-By-Step Guide and Showcase Creative Pottery is a very nice book that examines the works of nine very distinct clay artists. One artist focuses primarily on Raku and several of the other artist's work would lend itself to a Raku glaze treatment. The book is broken into three parts: Form, Surface, and Firing. Lana Wilson is one of the artists featured in the form section. She hand builds pieces using soft slabs and lots of stamps. I would think her work would look very interesting Raku-fired, given all the cracks and crevices that exist in her pieces. Steven Hill is one of the artists in the Surface section. He creates large flowing bulbous forms, which I think would look great with a copper matte Raku glaze. In the firing section is the Raku artist Jim Connell who creates large lidded spiral faceted vessels. He uses a unique twice-firing technique with his Raku glazes. He first fires the Raku glaze in a Raku kiln like a high fire glaze. Then he refires the piece in a typical Raku fashion of pulling it from the kiln at the maturity temperature and placing it in a reduction chamber. Each artist demonstrates the creation of his or her work in a step-by-step process, which makes if very easy for the novice potter to learn a new technique. Following each instructional section is a gallery section containing a collection of pieces that detail the work of several artists that can provide one with inspiration on their own work. Order a copy at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1564963152/rakuclayartis-20 ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ My full calendar can be seen at: http://www.garyrferguson.com/events.htm Applications for shows in 2003 are starting to roll in. I will let you know as soon as I am confirmed in any. The publication of "500 Bowls" by Lark Book has been
completed. I haven't received my copy yet, but you can order a copy at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1579903622/rakuclayartis-20 ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ I have received several requests for where to obtain pottery materials. The collection of links below is some of the more popular on-line pottery suppliers. Aftosa Axner Pottery Brackers Big Ceramic Store Kickwheel Pottery Supply Mile Hi Ceramics Just Raku Newsletter Archive http://www.JustRaku.com ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ If you wish to no longer receive this newsletter send a email to unsubscribe@garyrferguson.com with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Disclaimer: Just Raku, the owner(s) and representative(s) of this
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