More Raku work

This hummingbird mask has been sitting around for about a year, waiting for me to get in the mood/ and get the right colors to glaze her. She is unfinished, because the piece will have feathers above the face when I've gone to the store and found what she needs. I do like the Mayco glazes as well as Raku glazes...a combination of colors that are true and colors that are metalic.
I was amazed that the white earthenware worked so well also, in raku work, with the sudden temperature changes.

This is the same hooded figure that I posted last time. Now I re-fired her with some more raku glazes...so the bare matt-black clay is no longer so dominant. Of course other folks now say they liked her better before...but I like her better now. You can see the movement of the clay skirt and so forth with the glazes that kind of blend in and out in the light.

And I think the white cowl for her front helps also...tying her white face to the arms and the greenery necklace.

This is one of my masks...which I made last year and never got the right glazes to do the final work.

The Mayco Stroke N Coat glazes are the white, black and oranges, with Raku clear over them.

The eyes were yellow, and it burned down to white. I'm ok with that.

Raku class

First you've got to figure out how to get it into the kiln...which Geoff is showing Bette how he thinks it might work. The pieces on the far side of the table are mine...before being raku-ed.

It's definitely a blur of activity, as Geoff puts a hot pot with tongs in the can for Pat (center) while Marcia in the background is working on her closed can that already had a hot pot placed inside, and she is about to fling a wet towel over it as it smokes and reduces the pot from getting oxygen, thus the black places on the bare clay.

The kiln is to the left (large canister) where Geoff is again removing a hot pot. Bette on the right is about to smother her can which has a hot pot inside with newspapers that are flaming up.

Wendy shows how she glazed some of her raku pots. We had a "critique" before the kiln got up to temperature, where we shared how we got some of our results, and asked each other questions.

Now just what does that gesture mean, Bette?

Maureen and Marcia discuss how a certain color was achieved.

Pat shows her pot which we all gave appreciation.

I made the rest of these pots.- a slab built piece that came out with a rainbow in the glaze...nice surprise.

Another slab built piece, this time with torn slabs reconstructed. The same blue glaze is on the outside. Inside was a clear crackle, which turned silver in places.

This is a small piece, all extruded pieces assembled. I tested some Mayco Stroke and Coat under clear crackle raku glaze.

This little goddess is only glazed as highlights, the red sleeve linings, and greenery done with Mayco under clear crackle. I kind of like the bare black clay. I've been seeing some really lovely pieces in books.