Anagama: News and Raku Workshops

Wood-Fire News < MAY 2008 >

  I am away (working for the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge) and will not be able to reply your emails for a while. - (Gas)
'TEA BOWL MAKING' : Next workshop is June 14 & 28
  Find more details in the red frame below.
'ANAGAMA IN THE WOOD'  : July 25 - 27
  An International Wood-Fire Event will be held alongside the 8 day firing (July 20-27) of my anagama at Spring Meadow Farm, Berkhamsted, Herts. U.K. Eminent potters will be giving interesting demos and talks, with a sale of their work at this event. Please click Wood-Fire Weekend for more details.

RAKU WORKSHOPS

Do you fancy making an authentic raku tea bowl of your own and fire it in my kiln? Raku courses are held every other Saturday at Spring Meadow Farm. Whelpley Hill, Berkhamsted, HERTS.

No dates for May, June 14 & 28, July 12 & 26,
August 09 & 23, September 06 & 20

You need to attend 2 Saturdays to complete your tea bowl: you will make the tea bowl on the first Saturday, and you will glaze it and fire it on the second Saturday. You take your bowl home after the firing.
Let's slow down our busy life and enjoy a day with relaxing 'raku' making in the wood!
The workshop is situated in a beautiful woodland, ideal for a quiet stroll in the woods. Your family might want to join you for lunch. Why don't you bring your packed lunch and have a picnic.

The fee is £50 for 2 Saturdays. (the whole making/glazing /firing process)
Early booking is recommended due to limited room for each session.
All materials (clay, glazes & tools) are provided. Just bring your working clothes and lunch.

Phone; 01442 - 384 789
For further details, please contact me by email; pot@anagama.co.uk

What is Raku?

'Raku' is a Japanese word that can be translated as meaning "enjoyment". It can be said that 'raku' is the direct result of the collaboration between the famous tea-master Rikyu and the roof-tile maker Chojiro.
During the Civil War in late 16th Century Japan, the feudal lord, Hideyoshi gave an ideograph of 'raku' engraved on a gold seal to Chojiro, who adopted the word as his family title.

(The six images above are all well-known masterpieces by Chojiro.)

    What makes 'raku' unique is the use of low-fired clay and glazes in a small quick-firing kiln. Indeed Chojiro is said to have been the first to produce, in 1580, a low-fired glazed pottery which involved putting the tea bowls into, and taking them out of, a red-hot muffle kiln, rather than waiting for the kiln to cool.
    When the glazes have melted, the bowls are removed from the kiln. As they cool, the glazes are exposed to oxidation and reduction, and the resultant diversity of delicate and muted colours renders each pot unique. The rawness of the clay and the gentle nature of the glaze create the opportunity to achieve extremely subtle variations of colour.
    'Raku' bowls are made from refractory clay, which is able to withstand the extreme thermal shocks to which it is exposed in the firing process. The clay is not hard-fired, and therefore the bowls are relatively fragile and porous until sealed by use with tea, or by the application of oil. Nevertheless, the body is an excellent thermal insulator and the Japanese consider it ideal for drinking hot green tea.
    Couple this with the infinite variations of understated colour and texture through which each bowl each tells a story, and it is easy to see why this firing process became so widely acclaimed and appropriately named as 'raku', or enjoyment.
    Chojiro's tea bowls usually have their individual names; some poetic and some witty were given by successive owners. We can see how those bowls have been treated as priceless treasures for centuries.