Raku Taster – 29th August 2025

Its Friday morning and a great day for a new group of RakuMania students. In this group we had some friends of a very good friend of mine, so it was great to meet them. This part of Wales is lovely, so a fantastic weekend for those waiting to get out of the hustle and bustle of London and surrounding areas. With the morning beverage and introductions out the way, Adrian did his usual talk about the history of pottery and more specifically that of Raku and how it ended up in the UK.

Karen was on hand to show all the students the different styles of Raku that we do, including using glazes, underglazes, and several commercial glazes. The students were shown some examples of Naked Raku and explained the two step process that we use and how burnishing pots at a leather hard stage allow for a fabulous shiny finish. The technique which many of our students love, is the horse hair / feather / sugar one where these items are carbonised on the pots at around 700c after being heated to 850c. We are also trying out a different clay to the Ashraf Hannah we predominately use because of the white finish, this clay has a pinky / buff colour when fired, so interested to see how the horse hair technique comes out on one of these pots.  

The students then chose their two pots with many optioning to buy a third for only £10 and started decorating them. Most students opted to do a horse hair pot, which meant that in this morning session they could focus on their other creations. Karen was able to help the students and guide them but at the end of the day, it was up to them to do their own creations. With the naked raku technique sometimes being a little temperamental, Karen assisted the students dipping their pots in the resist and timing it carefully before dipping in the glaze. Before we knew it, it was lunch time, and we sorted the pots out into the 4 firings planned for the afternoon.

During lunch, Adrian set up the kiln and loaded the first firing, a glaze firing. This was followed by a horse hair firing and then 2 further glaze firings. Students were shown how we seal and polish the pots which need it doing, mainly the naked raku and horse hair technique. It was a great day, and everyone went home having learnt about the Raku style of pottery and some lovely creations for the home.

KH – A very enjoyable day. So many more to try, so will have top come back ! Baie dankie

CL – Fantastic introduction to Raku techniques. See you in the future

RT – Lovely day learning new skills and being “artistic”! Thanks

ST – A fantastic day, learnt all about Raku with lots of opportunities to experiment

CJ – Great knowledge, great day. Thank you

IK – A lovely day !!

SF – A great day. Made the least artistic person produce amazing pots. Thank you!