Raku frustration

Am frustrated, viewing so much great color that others have accomplished and
being unable to come close to some of the great blue/red copper results.
Have tried many recipies, firing up to cone 05/06 with pyrometer as guage.
Fiber kiln. Reduction in garbage can and round BBQ. Using sawdust,
newspaper, leaves, etc. I get great white crackle with Laguna B mix with
sand. Have had some success with torching after pulling. Would like to get
a gloss blue/red/copper finish. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jack in Seattle

To get good copper reds in Raku, we find that it is essential that the pots
still be glowing cherry red when they go into the garbage bin, and the lid
must go on asap, and be sealed very well. Any delay and loss of heat and you
lose the effect.

We use a small wood fired brick kiln - once it gets to temperature, it
retains enough heat to do several pots at the same time - we have had some
great results, all shades of red and "copper-plated" pots.

Dave

"J.R.Lawson" wrote in message
...
Am frustrated, viewing so much great color that others have accomplished
and
being unable to come close to some of the great blue/red copper results.
Have tried many recipies, firing up to cone 05/06 with pyrometer as guage.
Fiber kiln. Reduction in garbage can and round BBQ. Using sawdust,
newspaper, leaves, etc. I get great white crackle with Laguna B mix with
sand. Have had some success with torching after pulling. Would like to
get
a gloss blue/red/copper finish. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jack in Seattle

Hi Jack
blue/red/copper is a result of knowing your glaze inside out, using it a lot
(time after time), being with folk who use that glaze and finding out what
they do...... Yes it's a steep + loooonnnggg learning curve, but oooooh, the
colours.........
Hugz
Eddie
"J.R.Lawson" wrote in message
...
Am frustrated, viewing so much great color that others have accomplished
and
being unable to come close to some of the great blue/red copper results.
Have tried many recipies, firing up to cone 05/06 with pyrometer as guage.
Fiber kiln. Reduction in garbage can and round BBQ. Using sawdust,
newspaper, leaves, etc. I get great white crackle with Laguna B mix with
sand. Have had some success with torching after pulling. Would like to
get
a gloss blue/red/copper finish. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jack in Seattle

What is the glaze you are using? That is the recipe???? I have so-so results
with my raku.
Does anyone have a sea green glaze for raku--could be Ferguson Blue. I love
it, but it was from a class I used to attend, and have never been able to
duplicate it. I have since moved to the Portland area from the Bay Area where
I used it in class.

Have you checked this site it might help.

http://www.garyrferguson.com/index.html

Bert Gibson


"Marmaj40" wrote in message
...
What is the glaze you are using? That is the recipe???? I have so-so
results
with my raku.
Does anyone have a sea green glaze for raku--could be Ferguson Blue. I
love
it, but it was from a class I used to attend, and have never been able to
duplicate it. I have since moved to the Portland area from the Bay Area
where
I used it in class.

My experience is the same as Dave's. You want to get it in the reduction
chamber as soon as possible. When we are doing a group firing copper glazes
come out of the kiln and into thier reduction chamber first, then the
remaining pots are pulled. Also a little tip I was given by a seasoned
potter was to use the colored Sunday funny pages instead of regular
newspaper. I've tried it once since that advice and those pots were the best
I have done so far.

Bert

"David Coggins" wrote in message
...
To get good copper reds in Raku, we find that it is essential that the
pots
still be glowing cherry red when they go into the garbage bin, and the lid
must go on asap, and be sealed very well. Any delay and loss of heat and
you
lose the effect.

We use a small wood fired brick kiln - once it gets to temperature, it
retains enough heat to do several pots at the same time - we have had some
great results, all shades of red and "copper-plated" pots.

Dave

"J.R.Lawson" wrote in message
...
Am frustrated, viewing so much great color that others have accomplished
and
being unable to come close to some of the great blue/red copper results.
Have tried many recipies, firing up to cone 05/06 with pyrometer as
guage.
Fiber kiln. Reduction in garbage can and round BBQ. Using sawdust,
newspaper, leaves, etc. I get great white crackle with Laguna B mix
with
sand. Have had some success with torching after pulling. Would like to
get
a gloss blue/red/copper finish. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jack in Seattle

It may not be your glaze recipe. Remember, raku is an ancient
technique. They didn't have pyrometers in those days.

The raku technique I was taught never used a pyrometer. We watched for
the glaze to bubble and then smooth over. At this point, the piece is
pulled and put in reduction chamber. We used a sand pit as a base,
placed combustible materials on the sand, and seated the chamber in the
sand to minimize smoke. For the swirled reds and blues in copper
glazes, we popped the chamber briefly - that is, we lifted an edge to
allow air to enter. You can see the colors change and re-seat the
chamber in the sand when you see what you want.

The chamber can be any non-combustible container - coffee can, metal
bucket, metal garbage can, etc. There are other methods of reduction.
One being a covered container in which you place your combustible
material, place your hot piece within, and cover. The "pop" technique
works well with this method, too. A third that I have never tried, but
have seen done, is an open pit where the hot piece is placed on
combustible material in an open pit and, when the desired color is
achieved, quenched in water. I use the sand pit because I have asthma
and it minimizes the amount of smoke. I also wear a mask (not the
paper-kind, the ugly bug-looking thing). Just because I have asthma,
doesn't mean I can't raku!

Years later, in our pottery, we added a pyrometer to the raku kiln as a
rough guide for beginners. But the secret ingredient was always picking
the right moment to pull the piece.

The kiln we used was Fiber-Frax lined hardware cloth with a similarly
lined garbage can lid for a cover. Hole cut in the lid for proper
circulation. The amount of air circulation wass regulated by a
combination of adjusting the burner (both the air flow valve and
position in the kiln) and a piece of Fiber-Frax to alter the size of the
lid vent. This set-up was portable (sand pit on a wheeled dolly) as we
had to do the raku firing in a parking lot. I have also used a brick
kiln and a 30-gallon garbage can kiln for raku with good results. All
of these were top loaders.

May the kiln gods bless your endeavors,

Jan C.

Thamk all of you who responded.
"J.R.Lawson" wrote in message
...
Am frustrated, viewing so much great color that others have accomplished
and
being unable to come close to some of the great blue/red copper results.
Have tried many recipies, firing up to cone 05/06 with pyrometer as guage.
Fiber kiln. Reduction in garbage can and round BBQ. Using sawdust,
newspaper, leaves, etc. I get great white crackle with Laguna B mix with
sand. Have had some success with torching after pulling. Would like to
get
a gloss blue/red/copper finish. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jack in Seattle

I haven't been reading here for a while. So I'm late on response. Forgive me
because I have not yet tried raku but I've done a lot of reading and
watching whatever show I can find on television because I have been wanting
to do this for years. I'm only describing what I've read and seen. I did
read that if you need more of the bright copper effect on your pots you are
not getting enough reduction. One remedy was enough combustible material to
cut off the oxygen or a smaller (shorter) reduction chamber. This person
used a short metal tub rather than a barrel because he had small pieces. He
also described the popping technique that Jan Clauson described in a
previous post. If you are getting only the bright copper color with none of
the blues and greens then there is to much reduction. I did read the pop
technique that Jan described to be a remedy. I also saw a show on TV where
the person stood the pot on top of the combustible material and grabbing it
at the top with tongs moved it a little from side to side while the
combustibles were flaming up around it. He then put the lid on for
reduction. His pots had gorgeous color. Good luck.

"J.R.Lawson" wrote in message
...
Thamk all of you who responded.
"J.R.Lawson" wrote in message
...
Am frustrated, viewing so much great color that others have accomplished
and
being unable to come close to some of the great blue/red copper results.
Have tried many recipies, firing up to cone 05/06 with pyrometer as
guage.
Fiber kiln. Reduction in garbage can and round BBQ. Using sawdust,
newspaper, leaves, etc. I get great white crackle with Laguna B mix
with
sand. Have had some success with torching after pulling. Would like to
get
a gloss blue/red/copper finish. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jack in Seattle

we get great reduction reds & coppers when the copper based raku glaze is
sprayed with water while IN the reduction container. there's some extra
oxidation that occurs when lifting from the reduction can to the water dunk
that seems to change the glaze. reliable results - for us - by spraying water
into the can before pulling material out.

steve

southern california water - maybe there's some extra junk in our water? it
does taste a little funny...

Subject: Raku frustration
From: "J.R.Lawson"
Date: 1/12/2004 6:08 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

Am frustrated, viewing so much great color that others have accomplished and
being unable to come close to some of the great blue/red copper results.
Have tried many recipies, firing up to cone 05/06 with pyrometer as guage.
Fiber kiln. Reduction in garbage can and round BBQ. Using sawdust,
newspaper, leaves, etc. I get great white crackle with Laguna B mix with
sand. Have had some success with torching after pulling. Would like to get
a gloss blue/red/copper finish. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jack in Seattle










steve graber