{"id":9399,"date":"2015-01-09T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T18:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daveonline.net\/thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/?p=9399"},"modified":"2015-01-08T16:59:37","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T23:59:37","slug":"outside-inspiration-fuming-pots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/outside-inspiration-fuming-pots\/","title":{"rendered":"Outside Inspiration: A Clay-Fire Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chris_Hawkins1206\"<\/a>Raku pottery is so fascinating.\u00a0There are a myriad of variations and techniques, so much so that it’s rather hard to define. The only real commonalities between them all seem to be the low-firing temperature and pulling the pottery out of the kiln while still red hot. The Western method includes introducing red hot clay to a combustible material to halt the chemical reaction in glazes and introducing the black smoke that works its way into\u00a0the cracked glaze, creating those characteristic black crazing patterns. But it has been the intense color that can be achieved with raku that has drawn it\u00a0into such favor in recent decades.<\/p>\n

I had a chance to build\u00a0a few of my own raku pots back in art school and found myself drawn not only to the color and crazing but to the direct relationship the pottery\u00a0had with fire and earth. We would bury our hot pots in a sawdust-filled hole in the ground, watch it smolder and then cover the hole with a heavy metal lid to let the pottery sit and take it in. There was this\u00a0primal, raw feeling that the earth itself was assisting in creating this art. It was so unusual, to be outside, letting the fire, smoke and earth create the texture and design of my pieces, and I can’t say I’ve had quite that kind of experience since then.<\/p>\n

I think it is that uncontrollable outcome in the\u00a0surface design of raku that also draws people to this kind of work. That happenstance texture\u00a0is dominant in the work of\u00a0ceramicist Chris Hawkins<\/a>. Yes, he works up some really brilliant\u00a0colors, but it is his collaboration with the fire elements, allowing the heat, flame and smoke to choose the patterning,\u00a0that makes it so breathtakingly beautiful.<\/p>\n

You can find a gallery of Chris’s work<\/a>\u00a0on his website and a bit of insight into how and why he creates these pieces on his blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"PolymerArts<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"lpedit\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raku pottery is so fascinating.\u00a0There are a myriad of variations and techniques, so much so that it’s rather hard to define. The only real commonalities between them all seem to be the low-firing temperature and pulling the pottery out of the kiln while still red hot. The Western method includes introducing red hot clay to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3723,13,3719,3671,2528,2963,3720,3722,3721,1789,3393],"class_list":["post-9399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational-art","tag-art-vessel","tag-artistic-inspiration","tag-chris-hawkins","tag-not-polymer-art","tag-organic-art","tag-outside-inspiration","tag-raku","tag-raku-copper-matt-vessel","tag-raku-pottery","tag-warm-color-palette","tag-warm-colors"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2O0Lm-2rB","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}