The CodyO Show "Raku-ing Jars"

The quest for the perfect white crackle:

This picture is an example of one of the best white crackles that I was ever able to achieve. There are many different variants that can cause you to get a good or bad white crackle. Sometimes you get a few big dark cracks, sometimes you get a lot of smaller spiderweb like cracks, and sometimes you get not cracks at all.*

I wish I was taking meticulous notes when I made the jar in this picture, but at the time I figured it would be easy to reproduce the same results. How wrong I was. Oh well. Now I think I will start a series of CodyO Shows trying different techniques to achieve "the perfect white crackle". Ya'll can learn with me.

In this episode of "The CodyO Show" I will be spraying my jar to encourage cracks then I will be reintroducing oxygen into the post fire reduction chamber in one minute intervals (a process known as "burping"):




What did we learn?

The Bad: This method of spraying and burping did not get the cracks that I was looking for. This may have been because I let the pot cool down too much before I put it in the combustibles. It may also have been because when I burped it, I let it flame up too much rather than just letting it smoke real well.

The Good: I was able to solve a problem that I was previously having were I was cracking the clay body instead of just the glaze. This was a durability problem that was keeping me from being able to sell these jars which are in such high demand right now. I was having this problem because I had to bring my kiln up to 1800 degrees to melt the glaze. Pulling the pottery out at this point was too much thermal shock for the clay body. I remedied this by first bringing the kiln up to 1800 then dropping it back down, and not pulling the jars til about 1700, thus having less thermal shock.

Next Time: Next time on "The CodyO Show" we will try our luck with the tried and tested method of blowing on the pot to encourage cracks in the glaze (instead of spraying it with water). I think I will also burp it but I'm not gonna let it flame up as much. I'm just gonna to go for tons of smoke. See ya next time :)

* Remember, you can always click on any pictures in my blog to view them closer. You will find this helpful for examining the various types of crack formations on the three different jars I have shown in this post.

Kiln Conversion Questions

I got a great question from a fellow potter:

Cody,
Thanks for the step by step you did on the conversion of your electric to gas. I'm about to start the same process now and would like to ask you about a million questions (burner size, propane usage, pressure, burner location, etc). Anyway, would appreciate your feedback if you have time. thanks,

Here was my response:

For a burner I use the MR750 burner and pressure regulator combo such as the one shown at this link: http://www.wardburner.com/burnersparts/rakuburners.html

I use a 9 gallon propane tank. This size tank is the smallest tank that I am able to use to bring my kiln up to temperature. I am usually almost out of gas when the kiln reaches temp. My propane tank is also the biggest tank that I think I would be able to carry when it is full of propane. These two factors are what brought me to the decision to buy this size tank. A larger tank might be nice for you if you are in a situation where you don't have to carry your tank far, or you have a hand truck or something.

The burner location is about an inch away from the hole in the kiln. I prop it up on cinder blocks. you can kinda see it on the first pic at the top, and third pic from the bottom on this page: http://web.mac.com/codyo2/Site/My_Kiln.html

If you have any other questions feel free to ask I am glad to help. I would love to know how it works out for you. Maybe you will have some feedback that will help me, I am also kinda new at this.

CodyO

Have a Frightful Thanksgiving...

...And a Happy Halloween.

That's right it's nearing thanksgiving and we're still working on jack-o-lanterns. This unglazed jack-o-lantern is the one that I made in "the CodyO Show Halloween special #1". My wife Leah carved it into a scary jack-o-lantern. Who would have thought that such a kind hearted sweet woman like Leah would be able to imagine such scary faces to carve into all these pumpkins that I make? All the pumpkins in the picture below were made by me and carved into scary monsters by My wife Leah.

Stay tuned, I will be firing the newest jack-o-lantern in an up coming episode of "The CodyO Show". Maybe I will still be doing Halloween stuff for Christmas.

More pumpkin posts

If you haven't seen: I have also done a video on making jack-o-lanterns, I have done a general update after the video, I have answered emails about making pumpkins, I have received a picture of a jack-o-lantern that someone made after watching The CodyO Show. I have shown you a pumpkin that my wife and I made in 2008, I have thrown a 25 pound pumpkin on a potters wheel wearing a zombie mask, and I have raku fired a jack-o-lantern wearing a zombie mask.

Fundraiser for Emme

Emme Ek, a 4th Grader at Forest Hills Elementary, was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma, a cancerous brain tumor.

Emme has been at Doernbecher Hospital for the last month enduring many surgeries to remove the high-risk tumor.
Eventually, she will have chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Emme's mom, Nicole, has left her job at West Linn Hairport, to care for Emme at the hospital and is uncertain when she will be able to return to work. Emme's big brother, Austin, a sophomore at Lake Oswego High School, also has been at his sister's side.

It's times like these when our community must come together to help a family that needs and is grateful for our support.

Patrick Noe has helped organize a fundraiser to help out with a little monetary support for Emme and her family. He has gotten bunch of us together who are members of the Oregon Potters Association to donate some of our work to be auctioned or raffled off with all the money going to Emme's family's to help pay for their expenses.



My wife Leah and I have donated the pottery shown in the picture above. Going from left to right we have; My salt fired vase, Leah's horse hair pot, my Raku fired jar with chalkboard, and my pit fired vase. There will also be lots of great pottery from the other talented members of the Oregon Potters Association. Did I mention that there will also be LIVE BLUES MUSIC. So buy some cool homegrown Oregon art, listen to some music, have a drink, and donate to a good cause!

When and Where?

At the Trail's End Saloon on Sunday (11/15)

1320 Main Street

Oregon City, OR 97045

503-656-3031

A benefit honoring "Emme." This courageous little 10 year old
girl is being treated for a brain tumor. The benefit will begin
at 1:00pm with a 7 band line-up followed by an ALL STAR JAM at
night. Raffle with prizes all day! The cover is $5 at the door.

If you can't make it to the fundraiser and you still wanna help you can check out www.gooddeeds.org to find out where to send donations.

The CodyO Show "Zombie Raku" Halloween Special #2

This episode of "The CodyO Show" was filmed on Halloween night. I was overcome with holiday spirit and I decided to bust out the zombie mask again. The piece I am firing is the jack-o-lantern from the very popular CodyO Show episode #1, where I first showed the technique of making wheel thrown jack-o-lanterns. Those of you who watched this Jack-o-lantern's birth can now watch it being finalized.



The "Raku" glaze that I use for our jack-o-lanterns is highly metallic. It responds dramatically to the post fire reduction process (also known as Raku). As you saw in the video; I pull the glowing hot pottery out of the kiln and placed it into a separate chamber (in this case a trash can) full of combustible materials (in this case newspaper). When the newspaper burns, flames dance across the the jack-o-lantern. The flames, depending on where they hit that metallic glaze, are what create the different array of colors across the piece. What is really happening is the metallic glaze decides on what color it wants to based on how much oxygen is in it's proximity. The flames dancing across the jack-o-lantern eat up the oxygen in variable amounts all over the piece, creating random colors.


Take a look at the three scary jack-o-lanterns. My wife and I have made about one each year. Here we have 2007 on the left, 2008 on the right, and the recently fired 2009 in the middle. With the exception of the stem on the newest pumpkin, all three pieces have the same glaze. You can see how each one of them has their own unique array of colors. This was totally dependent on what the flame did and, for the most part, out of my control. Make sure to click on the above picture so you can get a close up view. You will see that some of the brighter spots on the pumpkin in the middle are a perfect copper.

More pumpkin posts

If you haven't seen: I have also done a video on making jack-o-lanterns, I have done a general update after the video, I have answered emails about making pumpkins, I have received a picture of a jack-o-lantern that someone made after watching The CodyO Show. I have shown you a pumpkin that my wife and I made in 2008, and I have thrown a 25 pound pumpkin on a potters wheel wearing a zombie mask.