RakuMania & John Scott Workshop – 29th April 2023

Mastering Naked Raku and Copper Matt Lustre were the main aims of this workshop. With all our clothes on, RakuMania and John Scott from Sourdust Pottery started the day off with a brief introduction and safety talk. The morning was spent preparing our pots for the firing after lunch. Most of the attendees were members of South Wales Potters and one couple even drove down from Stoke-on-Trent.

We all started with the Copper Matt Lustre and John was very forthcoming with his glaze recipes, techniques and tips. The key to a great finish is dipping the pots rather than painting on the glaze. Once these pots were drying, we started preparing pots for the Naked Raku firings by dipping them all in a resist before painting on a thin coat of sacrifice glaze.  Whilst all was drying, we popped into the house for a lovely lunch of quiche, new potatoes and salad. With vegan and gluten-free options for those with dietary requirements.

John started warming up the kilns and after lunch we started firing the Matt Lustre pots in his old electric kiln, which had been converted into a gas-fired raku kiln. The Naked Raku pots were fired in one of RakuMania’s homemade raku kilns, which were made using Mick Morgan’s process. John’s technique for getting the vibrant purple, pink, yellow and blue was tremendously interesting, and we all learnt some excellent tried and tested techniques for getting colourful results we were looking for.   

To compliment and end the day, Karen and Adrian demonstrated the horsehair, sugar and feather technique for decorating pots and a few of the students tried this out on their own pots.  

The final results of the day were some very happy people and some stunning pots. We hope to have a re-run of this fabulous workshop again later in the summer, so get in touch with RakuMania if you’d be interested in participating.

Comments:

MG – Just a completely wonderful, exciting and informative day. I’ve learnt so much and has opened up a new world for me. Thank you so much for everything xx

VJ – Great day – wonderful experience – great comonay – good food. Thank you to Adrian, Karen and especially John Scott for his special expertise

MvdV – Feel very spoilt :). A day for myself learning loads. So many techniques and tips to take home and explore – vegan food was brilliant. Thank you Adrian, Karen and John for a super day x

KB – Excellent clinic. Copper matt simply amazing. Without John would probably have been trying unsuccessfully for years. Thank you

PJ – Thank you for a lovely day! Especially John coming so far to show us his techniques