Emma Summers

Ceramicist

As part of the Step Up programme for schools Emma Summers came to Grange to show some yr 10 BTEC Students how to achieve a raku kiln and produce some amazing effects with the glaze.

Before Emma came to grange pupils had a chance to see emma's work at the Whitworth Gallery Rochdale where she was having an exhibition of work based on a visit to east asia and the growing refugee crisis. There appears to be a rise in inter-racial and international brutality and with this, a growing population of displaced peoples.

Amnesty International estimates that throughout the world there is a new refugee every 21 seconds. Anatomy of Exiles (emma's exhibition) was created out of this climate.

The first change you should see is the glaze surface taking on an almost sugary appearance called sintering. Next, the glaze surface will start to blister and bubble, a really ugly stage which is a bit disconcerting when you first see it happening. After a while the glaze surface will start to flow and smooth and you will know you are approaching the critical stage of the firing.

Make sure you have protected your hands with heat resistant gloves and that you have your raku tongs handy. Remove any drying pots from the top of the kiln and observe the glaze surface carefully. It should now present an orangepeel appearance, smooth but with tiny dents and pinholes. You will find a good torch useful at this stage to observe the way the beam of light is reflected from the glaze surface. Quite suddenly the glaze surface will smooth out, all the pinholes will disappear and the whole surface will look shiny and wet.
This is the time to quickly turn off your gas supply (at the cylinder not the burner!), lift off the kiln and place it safely to one side. Then as quickly as you can, use your long handled raku tongs to lift the still glowing pots from the kiln shelf and place them in the combustion chamber. The sawdust in the chamber will burst into flame and this is where you will need a helper to cover the pots with more sawdust until all the flames are covered and very little smoke is seen. Cover the container with a lid and leave.
This whole process will have taken about 30 minutes in an efficient kiln and you can now load the next lot of pots in the kiln and start your next firing.

After about 15 to 20 minutes use your tongs to remove the still hot pots from the combustion chamber and immerse them quickly into a large container of cold water (something like a dustbin/trashcan is useful). Again this is not strictly necessary but we have found that this seems to help fix the lustres and develop the crackles. When the pots have cooled enough to handle with bare hands, fish them out of the water and have a look at them. The first time you do this you will probably be bitterly disappointed. All you will see is a dull blackish pot. Don't worry! This is just a covering of carbon from the sawdust and you can soon remove this by scrubbing with warm soapy water to reveal those wonderful lustrous colours and crackle effects. As seen from the examples on the page.