What is raku?
Raku is traditional Japanese low fire technique developed by the Raku family in the 16th century. Paul Soldner is know as the pioneer of American raku. American raku is different from Japanese raku because of the reduction used. The Japanese tradition calls for water as a reduction while most Americans use organic materials to reduce a piece. When your work reaches the desired temperature, you pull it from the burning kiln and place it in a container along with a reduction. For example, a barrel, can, or hole in the ground are typical containers. Some examples of reduction materials include sawdust, newspaper, straw, banana peels, seaweed, coffee grounds.
Raku is the name given to a firing technique, where the pots are removed from the still-hot kiln when the proper temperature is reached. Commonly raku involves post-fire reduction where the pots are immersed in a can containing organic material (e.g. sawdust) and covered so that reducing conditions are attained. The clay body turns black, the glazes craze (or crackle), copper bearing glazes are often reduced to produce metallic lusters. This is an exciting process often leading to surprise results. The origin of raku was in Japan where it has been practiced by the Raku family of potters since the 16th century. The technique is somewhat more subdued producing black raku and (less commonly) red raku ware. Some of the most famous tea-bowls are raku. Sometime in the 1960’s Paul Soldner, Robert Pippenberg, Hal Riegger, and other American potters got into the act and produced innovations in post-fire reduction. The term raku has stuck for their techniques in spite of vast differences from th
