Day five





Decorated my thrown bowl with underglaze.  It is important that the bowl is slightly wet, so it has to be dipped in water, prior to applying the underglaze.

The under glaze is best applied in layers that are built up rather than a thick coat.







Day six - glazing and raku firing



Dipping the bowl into the clear glaze - the bowl is put into the glaze in a circular sweep movement, removed and then held over the bucket for a moment to get rid of any drips.  The bowl is then held up for a few moments, any drips will collect on the edge and this can be removed by dabbing with finger.

Raku Firing

The kiln is gas fired and insulated - it has to reach a temperature of 1000 degrees for firing.  After firing the pieces are removed and placed immediately into wood shavings (in a bin) where they are left for 30 mins at least - it is here that the smoke seaps into the cracks in the glaze and patterns the piece.

This is my piece which was first dipped into the resist slip, left to dry and then dipped into the glaze - I applied glaze to a level slightly below the level of the resist slip as this gives a better finish.  After this process it was placed into the kiln and then into the shavings.  

How it looked after taking it out of shavings                        

 How it looked after cleaning off glaze.