What is Raku

The term "Raku" came from Japan and has a variety of meanings. The application of "Raku" was first granted to a small ceramics workshop in Kyoto in the late 16th century by the warlord Hideyoshi, and was used both as a family name of the generation and as the name for the wares they produced. The Raku family was famous for producing tea bowls, but also made a variety of serving dishes for food eaten during the tea ceremony. Raku wares were hand built and carved from a porous clay body, decorated with lead glazes and fired one at a time in a small indoor, charcoal kiln

Inspired by these Japanese rough porous low fired pots, Paul Soldner in the 1960's started a Raku movement in the United States. He discovered tossing the hot pots into a reduction can gives the glazes the characteristics that most people now associate with "Raku". They are the crazing of the white glaze, bright flashes of color in the copper glaze and a darkly smoked clay body.

Today "Raku" has evolved from a name given to a ceramics family by a warlord in Japan because of the unique way they fired their pots to a name given to a low fire firing technique used by artist and teachers around the world. The common theme is each piece is fired individually and tells its own story about the fire. This is what gives 'Raku " is strength, flexibly and romance.