53. Ceramics: Raku

Ceramic students gain experience of the raku process when they assemble kilns and fire their work at 1900 degrees Fahrenheit during the annual Raku field trip to upstate New York. Pottery by Treasure Welle ’20

During our annual Raku field trip students gain a profound first-hand experience about the transformation of materials that is full of alchemy and delight. Every aspect of the day is fraught with possibility and low stakes peril. The Raku method condenses a ceramic process that normally takes days into minutes.

Students travel to upstate New York where they assemble kilns and fire their work to completion while handling their glowing hot wares at 1900 degrees Fahrenheit. When the objects are placed in straw bins they explode into flame and once smothered, are denied oxygen at a crucial moment of the glaze’s formation. Flame, smoke, and form all interact to turn base metals of copper and iron into golden, lustrous hues finishing each object according to the multitude of variables that played out in the process.

It is one thing to describe this event, but until you feel the heat of the kiln, see the radiant glow of a vessel as it transitions into a reduction bin, or fish a vessel from a bunch of cinders, you cannot absorb the compelling object lesson in the power and mystery of cause and effect, intention and chance.

Paired with the day’s activities, students cook their own lunch in a homemade outdoor wood burning oven make from the same clay as their vessels. High heat and experimentation are also the themes here, as students make pizzas and explore the alchemy of cooking outdoors.
—David Rubin, Visual Arts Teacher