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.
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