Naked Raku and Related Bare Clay Techniques

Description

If you've been waiting for the definitive book on naked raku, your wait is done. Here is a book resulting from years of studio work, workshop presentations, conversations, and research. It's the bringing together of a variety of approaches from artists with differing skill sets and technical abilities. Years in the planning and writing, there's now a single authoritative source for information on the practice of this exemplary alternative firing technique. Guided by Eduardo Lazo's expertise, contributors Kate and Will Jacobson, Wally Asselberghs, Linda and Charlie Riggs, Amber Aguirre, and Dana Bilello-Barrow each describe their personal working techniques. These skilled and passionate teachers withhold no secrets and reveal information gathered from years of trial-and-error experimentation. The book includes virtually every aspect of naked raku from clay types, making ware, slips, colors, glaze, kilns, firing, post firing, and finishing. The Happy Accident In working with clay, there's always an element of the unexpected. Eduardo explores unforeseen creative events and examines ways to promote their development, capturing the happy accident -highlighting imperfections. He examines artistic philosophies, creative guidelines, strategies, tactics and influences that form the foundation for the pursuit of perfect imperfection. He says that naked raku began as a happy accident that matured into a true art form. Naked raku was not invented by any one potter; rather, it was a technique discovered worldwide by several artists, almost simultaneously-a happy accident whose time had come. Before launching into a discussion of naked raku, Eduardo expounds on the type of environment necessary for a creative vision to take hold by describing characteristics of creativity and Zen art. Many Approaches Eduardo has been a force in the naked raku movement and through his relationships with noted naked raku artists, he was able to encourage them to contribute their discoveries to this book. He discusses the principles of naked raku and the various approaches of how you prepare your pots, the slips and the firing regimen. First-hand Experiences Instead of reporting on the approaches of the experts, Eduardo solicits their actual accounts and allows their voices to describe their techniques. Kate and Will Jacobson and Wally Asselberghs describe their versions of a two-step naked raku technique, and Linda and Charlie Riggs detail their one-step method. Each artist includes recipes for terra sig, glazes, ware preparation and more. Related Techniques As part of the related bare clay techniques, Amber Aguirre takes a little different approach to naked raku by creating a glazed effect that mimics the naked raku surface in what she calls Naked Fauxku. In another related technique, Dana Bilello-Barrow describes a tape resist smoke method. Linda and Charlie Riggs then return to describe how they use clay saggars in a raku kiln, followed by a demonstration of ferric chloride techniques and pit-fired ceramics from Eduardo. Opportunities to Explore Whether you're looking for information on the creative naked clay processes, seeking technical solutions including raku kiln buying details, or a source for genuine inspiration from the Gallery of selected works, Naked Raku and Related Bare Clay Techniques definitely fills the void. Review: Incredible book, a necessary addition to your reference shelf if you do raku! - This book is fantastic if you do raku, although it also covers briefly some other alternative techniques, such as saggar and smoke firing. This book is about the specific technique of Naked Raku, covering several different famous individuals (or couples in a few circumstances) who independently invented different styles of doing Naked Raku, and this covers those ways (single or double step) with different recipes, firing schedules and temperatures/cones to pull your pieces out of the kiln. It covers using just a slip (single) or using a slip and a sacrificial glaze (double or two step). It includes in a side bar a recipe for single step that goes up to about 1000C or cone 06 roughly, for those that would like to do Naked Raku at the same time or even on the same pots as other glazes which typically mature at about that temperature, which is a lot hotter than most recipes for Naked Raku (which tends to be pulled out at around 1500F or less). My only complaint with this book, which has a lovely introduction to Zen Ceramics, as well as thorough discussions of burnishing, using terra sigillatas (though I highly recommend Rhonda Willers book on terra sigillata for a complete overview of using them, that is one of my favorite and most recommended books for people who do ceramics of any kind), and grinding/polishing the pots in preparation for Naked Raku, which claybodies work best, etc- well my only complaint is that they don’t include a recipe for doing two step Naked Raku at 1000C or cone 06 as well, and there is one, in the book Alternative Kilns & Firing Techniques (it is called Ramon’s Naked Raku Slip and Ramon’s Transparent Retaining Glaze if you want to google and see if it is online anywhere, otherwise that is another fantastic book that you will definitely want on your reference shelf if you do any kind of alternative firing). Overall fantastic book- though a tip is if you are going to grind your pieces in preparation of doing Naked Raku or for any other reason, use diamond pads, either the hand pads or on an angle grinder or the small pads that come with a backing thingy that works in a Dremel or Fordham, don’t use silicon carbide Wet n’ Dry or worse regular sanding paper like they suggest in the book, takes too long and doesn’t get you the excellent polished feeling and literal glow that you can get with diamonds! Review: BEST and most comprehensive resource out there - In researching naked raku, I have read everything I could find and watched several videos on you-tube. This is the most comprehensive resource I found. Each chapter is well organized and speaks to a different approach --- taking you step by step though the author's approach. The contributors are generous with their observations, formulas, and tips. I tried several approaches based on this book....with varying results but that is what raku is all about....this gave me a starting point. The one step raku formula did not behave at all like it does for the two authors of that process. After several attempts to adjust the recipes, I gave up and moved on to the two step process with some nice results right away. Re-reading the chapters has led to minor adjustments in the process.....and better results each time.