Raku box with Chinese scripts, 13.5cm high, by outlet Nathalie Hamill

The Raku firing makes each vessel unique and I am never sure exactly how they are going to come out and where the crackling of the glaze is going to occur.

I build them by hand, using the slabbing technique with a white clay, which is quite gritty to survive the thermal shocks of the raku firing processes. I write the Chinese script with a black slip and the red square (my stamp) with a red underglaze.

Once they are fully dry, I biscuit fire my work first in an electric kiln, then before glazing the piece with a transparent raku glaze, I go over the Chinese script with a wax resist liquid and a incredibly thin paintbrush.

I then fire them in the raku kiln till about 1000C, before opening the kiln, the pieces are then put in a steel box with saw dust. Since the box is fairly air tight, the combustion of the saw dust draws oxygen from the clay and produces the black colour in the cracks in the glaze, and in any unglazed parts, which is characteristic of Raku. The process is finished by putting the pieces from the box into water, which bring the black to life and then scrubbing to get rid of all soot.

The quoted price is for one box only.

Link to my shop : https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CeramicsNHamill