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Top: Arts: Crafts: Ceramic_Art_and_Pottery: Techniques_and_Styles

This category is for non-commercial sites focusing on various Techniques and Styles used by Ceramic Artists and Potters. They will provide non-commercial displays and/or information on the techniques, including but not limited to Raku, Woodfiring, etc.

Please take the time to locate the most appropriate subcateory based on the primary technique or style discussed on the website.

Glaze

For general informational sites discussing a variety of glazing techniques and styles.

Raku

This category is for sites focusing Raku pottery. They will provide non-commercial displays and/or information on the technique.

Japanese low-fired ceramic ware produced in Kyoto by the Raku family; famous for tea bowls and food dishes for use in the tea ceremony; originated in the late 16th century; this term also applies to wares made by a wide variety of amateur and professional potters in the tea community.

Raku is a unique ceramic firing process. Each piece is sealed with a glaze that is high in copper. Each piece is fired in a ceramic kiln until the heat from the piece ignites paper, causing a reaction with the copper in the glaze.

Salt and Soda

This category is for non-commercial sites focusing the techniques of Soda or Salt glazing.

Salt-glazing is a once-fire technique where common salt is added to the kiln at the end of a firing, forming a glaze on any exposed surface of the work.  The result produces an “orange-peel” effect. Soda-glazing is a chloride-free alternative to salt-glazing. Sodium carbonate or bicarbonate is added into the kiln at a high temperature to create soda-vapor resulting in a variety of surface effects.

Terra Cotta

This category is for non-commercial sites focusing on the techniques and uses of Terra Cotta clay.

Terra Cotta (Italian: baked earth) is a lightly fired, unglazed earthenware usually reddish in color. The hard, brown-red clay is most often used for sculpture, bricks, tile, architectural ornamentation, and planting containers.

Woodfired

This category is for sites focusing Wood-fired pottery. They will provide non-commercial displays and/or information on the technique.

Wood firing remains a lengthy, labor intensive process. Depending on a number of factors--kiln size, desired temperature, and system of delivery--a firing may take twelve to thirty-six hours

The Japanese are famous for their wood-fired pottery, fired in an anagama (a single-chamber, tunnel-shaped kiln) or a noborigama (a multi-chamber kiln). The use of these wood-fired kilns has spread worldwide.

These specialized wood firings can take up to a week to complete. The fire is started with tiny pieces of wood and the kiln is stoked every five minutes. When the kiln becomes hot, large pieces of pottery are added at regular intervals. The fire is kept burning 24 hours a day for several days until the clay has matured. The kiln is left to cool for several more days—if it is opened too soon, the pots will crack and break. Because it is so labor-intensive, potters who use these kilns often fire only once a year. They save up an entire years work, perhaps hundreds of pots, for one firing.

Most wood-fired pottery doesn't have a glaze. As the fire gets hotter, drafts pull wood ash through the kiln where it is deposited on the pots. The pots are so hot from the flames (they glow red like charcoals in a barbecue) that the ash melts on the clay and creates its own glaze. The patterns produced are unpredictable.