On April 8th, Mary was the first guest artist to arrive since my arrival 0n March 11th. So it had been a quiet month! These last couple of weeks the ICS has filled up with teachers from Turkey, and workshop participants from Australia, Poland, Hungary, and Austria. Mariann Ban has been working with her Sound of Music showing everyone, one at a time, how to make a whistle, and Tim Andrews leading his Naked Raku workshop. Mary is well into her 3-week-race to throw, finish and glaze enough pots for a gas firing in the mid-sized blue kiln. We have trailed after Mariann as she took people to various museums around Kecskemet, and particularly enjoyed the Bozso Collection and the Musical Instrument Museum.
Tim Andrew’s ‘Naked Raku’ process is a specific way of working with form and subtle surface design using porcelain slips, scraffitto, and lowfired glaze. The surface is covered with porcelain slips that is then covered with a lowfire glaze. The glaze is then carefully scratched through to the slip surface, this exposing the slip to the carbon from the firng.
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Mariann starting her whistles -
Mary and Mariann at Max's -
Tim Andrew's class -
First raku firing -
In the hot box -
An ICS dins -
Mariann and David on the way to the Musical Instrument Museum -
In the Museum -
The blossoms.
The glaze is chipped off while still hot from the firing. The glaze is supposed to protect most of the the porcelain slip surface and only reveal the embellishment scratched into it, however, ultimately it is exposed the vagaries of the firing.