raku & dumb question

updated wed 3 jan 07

Donna Kat on sat 30 dec 06

On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 20:50:08 -0500, Bunny Lemak wrote:

>Happy Holiday's & Happy & healthy New Year to all my "new" Clayart friends!
>
>Over the holidays we lots of family through our house, and one who had
>taken some ceramic classes a long time ago asked me a question I couldn't
>answer, so here goes:
>
>On a Raku piece that didn't fire very colorful, can you put luster on and
>refire????
>
>I have always been taught that once Raku has been fired, you cannot refire
>it, so is this true or false? (good question, by the way!
>
>Thank you all for letting me be a part of this wonderful list!
>
>Bunny - AZ

Certainly you can refire. You will not be guaranteed that the piece will
survive a second firing but then you weren't guaranteed it would survive the
first. Raku is more stressful than firings where the piece cools slowly in
the kiln before handling but then the clay used for raku firings is
generally made to handle the more stressful situation.

I'm not sure what you mean but putting a luster on it however. There is a
low fire luster that is done in an electric kiln. This may change some of
the coloring you get from the reduction (putting it in a can with
combustibles typically) but it may not. I was greatly surprised to see
postings of some wonderful wood fired pieces that had not reached temp and
were then fired in an electric kiln. They kept their absolutely beautiful
wood fired characteristics. I would have sworn before seeing those that you
were going to lose every bit of the reduction that had occured.

If you are talking about getting the normal luster you get when firing in
raku, then you are again just as likely as not to get them in the second
firing as you were the first unless you put on more oxides than you had
before... you still however have no guarantee in getting the intense copper
reds unless you give a really REALLY good sacrifice to the kiln god this
time around :)...

Bunny Lemak on sat 30 dec 06

Happy Holiday's & Happy & healthy New Year to all my "new" Clayart friends!

Over the holidays we lots of family through our house, and one who had
taken some ceramic classes a long time ago asked me a question I couldn't
answer, so here goes:

On a Raku piece that didn't fire very colorful, can you put luster on and
refire????

I have always been taught that once Raku has been fired, you cannot refire
it, so is this true or false? (good question, by the way!

Thank you all for letting me be a part of this wonderful list!

Bunny - AZ

Cindy Gatto on sat 30 dec 06

If you mean by "luster" an overglaze that is fired to a low temp in an
electric kiln such as gold or platinum No you would be exposing the pot to an
oxidation atmosphere But you can re-glaze the pot with any raku glaze and re-fire
it in a raku firing You could also paint it with metallic paints I am not
sure about gold leaf but I think that would work as well

Cindy Gatto & Mark Petrin
The Mudpit
228 Manhattan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11206
718-218-9424
_www.mudpitnyc.com_ (http://www.mudpitnyc.com/)
mudpitnyc@aol.com

Irene F.Gulla on sun 31 dec 06

When I didn't like a piece I would refire it again. I have refired it after
2 years. I had no problem.

Marcia Selsor on sun 31 dec 06

On Dec 30, 2006, at 7:50 PM, Bunny Lemak wrote:

> Happy Holiday's & Happy & healthy New Year to all my "new" Clayart
> friends!
>
> Over the holidays we lots of family through our house, and one who had
> taken some ceramic classes a long time ago asked me a question I
> couldn't
> answer, so here goes:
>
> On a Raku piece that didn't fire very colorful, can you put luster
> on and
> refire????
>
> I have always been taught that once Raku has been fired, you cannot
> refire
> it, so is this true or false? (good question, by the way!
>
> Thank you all for letting me be a part of this wonderful list!
>
> Bunny - AZ

You can refire it even without putting a new glaze on it. Could be the
firing didn't go well or the reduction wasn't done well. If the pot
re-oxidized
over the years. then it might really look good after refiring it.
It one were to
re-apply a new glaze to the old one, you run the risk of having too
much
glaze and it could run.


Marcia Selsor
http://marciaselsor.com

Kathy McDonald on sun 31 dec 06

Bunny,

In answer to your question....
yes you can refire a raku piece.

If you plan to use commercial luster on it
luster depends somewhat on the glaze
underneath it for it's luster.

I have previously been disappointed
when applying luster to a matte or
raw clay, but have received some nice
results refiring over other glazes
particularly clear.

Commercial luster's are so expensive
its worth doing a tiny check and firing to
about cone 018 just to see what might happen.
Kathy



-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG]On Behalf Of
Bunny Lemak
Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2006 7:50 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Raku & dumb question


Happy Holiday's & Happy & healthy New Year to all my "new"
Clayart friends!

Over the holidays we lots of family through our house, and
one who had
taken some ceramic classes a long time ago asked me a
question I couldn't
answer, so here goes:

On a Raku piece that didn't fire very colorful, can you put
luster on and
refire????

I have always been taught that once Raku has been fired, you
cannot refire
it, so is this true or false? (good question, by the way!

Thank you all for letting me be a part of this wonderful
list!

Bunny - AZ

____________________________________________________________
__________________
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org

You may look at the archives for the list or change your
subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/

Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.16.0/609 - Release
Date: 12/29/2006

--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.16.0/609 - Release
Date: 12/29/2006

Snail Scott on mon 1 jan 07

-----Original Message-----
>From: Bunny Lemak
>Sent: Dec 30, 2006 7:50 PM

>On a Raku piece that didn't fire very colorful, can you put luster on and
>refire????
>
>I have always been taught that once Raku has been fired, you cannot refire
>it, so is this true or false?


First: do you mean a 'luster glaze', a term often
applied to raku copper glazes, or do you mean
overglaze lusters? If you use an overglaze luster,
you will reoxidize the piece somewhat, wherever
you don't apply the luster. If you apply another
coating of glaze, youv will have a double-thick
layer, and it will tend to run when refired if both
coatings were the proper thickness each. If the
first glaze coating was too thin, then it's less of
an issue.

You can always refire just about anything, raku
included. The results will change depending on
the conditions of the second firing (or third, or
fourth, or...) The special difficulty with raku is
that often, the shock of the first 'pull' from the
kiln will create fine cracks in the clay (not just
the glaze), and refiring will exacerbate this
weakness a little each time.

-Snail

Bunny Lemak on mon 1 jan 07

OOPS!!!

I apparently made a mistake - sorry. Let me re-ask the question with the
proper information:

I have some Raku pieces that didn't turn out very well, they were from a
seminar I took. A friend asked me if I could put some overglaze/lusters
on them, the kind you fire to ^018. Is that possible?? I have some old
Met-Mar lusters, along with the Hanovia ones that we were wondering if we
could use.

Thanks to everyone that answered and told me that I can always refire
Raku, but I didn'nt take the time to tell you about the lusters and the
cone firing.(Jeez aren't you guys mind readers?! lol my husband
finally is!!! :0) )

Ok, so let's try these answers again............sorry!!!!!

(dumb)Bunny