News, In the News | December 2011
RAKU POTTERS GET FIRED UP!
These potters like to stand next to their fire.
The Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, 102 S. 10th St., will be selling raku pottery wheel-thrown and hand-built by the museum's students and instructors from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Using long steel tongs, the ancient firing process includes taking the piece out of the kiln and exposing the pottery to natural elements such as grass, sawdust, leaves and hay. The glowing-red, hot work causes flames to shoot up. A reduction process occurs. Colors and designs appear when the piece cools.
When the raku pottery at the art museum were originally fired, the potters put the elements in steel trashcans in the museum's parking lot to control the flames.
While not exactly hands on (more like tongs-on), this process will be displayed at Saturday's raku sale as well.
Proceeds from the pottery sale will go to the museum's quest to purchase a pug mill, a tool that costs about $3,000 that helps recycle clay. The mill will be used in the museum's pottery classes.