Raku Kiln Opening and Horse Hair Demonstration

Typically, when we fire our raku kiln it has been for the community and the grand celebration that we orchestrate around the event, but earlier this month (honestly due to an electric kiln malfunction the day before a show!) we had the opportunity to experience what we’ve lovingly referred to as “Raku for 2.”  It was a beautiful Friday – hotter than the devil’s armit for September, but beautiful nonetheless.   We grabbed our coffee from the kitchen counter, grabbed an SD card for the zi8 and got to work glazing, waxing, loading, reducing, scrubbing, admiring, re-glazing (sometimes), re-firing (sometimes), and in short…doing the “raku thing” sans audience.  At the end of the day we had a serious load of new wares to take to the next day’s show, many gigabytes of poorly shot video (you’re welcome!) and a dirty driveway.  Ahhh…for the love of raku.  It was a great day and we had a blast.  After 11 years of marriage, this kind of day is one of the best “dates” you can have – full of laughing together, working together, high fives for good pots, wrinkled noses for bad pots, and an great feeling of being a team at the end of it all.  That’s lifefire.    We hope you’ll find this video educational, interesting, and just-inspiring-enough to make you want to join us for our next firing.  Who knows, maybe it will spark some lifefire in you too…