La Meridiana in Certaldo

Today was a fun day for two reasons 1) field trip! a.k.a. I got to miss class! and 2) I pet a dog for the first time since I've been away from home (very exciting). My ceramics class took the train to Certaldo, a small town in the countryside. There, we glazed our Raku pieces since it's not your typical firing process. The place we went to is a ceramic school called La Meridiana, pictured below.  

From the outside, you'd think you're about to enter a private getaway but the entire place consisted of multiple ceramic studios, and a huge outside areas with different kinds of kilns.

First, we glazed our pieces for about an hour. The glaze dries really quickly and is a pale turquoise-ish color until fired, when the true color comes out. We loaded pieces into the kiln in two firings since each person had 5+ pieces. Can you spot my two penguins in this firing?

As soon as the pieces came out of the kiln (after about an hour), we placed the pieces onto sawdust to achieve a crackling effect in which the smoke creates lines on the piece. 

We covered each piece with sawdust, so they could cool and achieve this effect.

Then, we placed the pieces into a bucket of water to cool down. It looked like tar, but the black was from the ash.

So, on to my pieces. Below is a plate that I fired plain white. I bet you can't guess what the black marks are... horse hair! That's right-- as soon as the piece came out of the kiln at 1,000+ degrees Fahrenheit, I threw horse hair onto my plate and it burned into my piece. We later took a brush to wipe off excess ash (picture towards the end of this post).

Below is my decorative teapot-- completely nonfunctional but pretty. I think the glaze was too thick because it didn't crack well, but I like the color so I'm pretty happy with it. The parts that are all black are intentional. Wherever you don't put glaze will turn black.

Below is my cherry blossom candle holder, which is a bit blurry in this picture (oops). I chose to glaze it white and I applied wax to make certain areas black since the red was too red and you can only do one color on a piece. The white glaze cracked all around, but to different extents so in the picture you can only see where the smoke marks are deep. There's lighter marks throughout the piece, but it doesn't come out in a picture.

Below are my two penguins. I'm really happy with the little one, but the big one didn't crack at all on the front.. Probably due to how it was placed in the sawdust, when it was taken out of the kiln, and other factors that you can't control. But, they are still cute together!

Below is another shot of my horse-hair plate, taken once the ash was brushed off.

And finally, all my pieces together with the beautiful Italian countryside in the background! 

I have a 9am class tomorrow so...

Ciao for now!