Raku – an ancient and violent technique – where extremes meet. The process of Raku firing is one of conflict and opposites, of breath and of suffocation, which combine and complement to produce reactions unlike those of any other process.

Pioneered in the late 16th century in Kyōto, Japan, by the tile maker Chōjirō, Raku involves taking rough, grog-laden clay through an initial bisque firing to transform the raw clay into a ceramic vessel. The vessel then undergoes a second firing, which – unlike other pottery firing processes – takes place very quickly and violently.

The object is heated, often with almost direct flame, to over 1000 Celsius within a short period of time, before being removed from the kiln whilst still glowing orange, where it may react with the air – cooling rapidly and producing crackling and crazing in applied glazes – before being placed into a reduction chamber with combustible media which ignites on contact.

The oxygen-rich environment in which the object has been fired is then reduced by covering the chamber, smothering the flames and suffocating the combustion. This reduced atmosphere causes the fire, now starved of oxygen, to take the fuel it needs from the surface of the vessel itself, promoting the reactions and finishes for which Raku is known. Finally the object is plunged into cold water, freezing the reaction in a state of permanence.