EARTHFIRE

A Japanese technique of gas firing adds "fire magic" and unpredictability to these handmade fireplaces. Rapidly brought to 1000oC, the fireplaces are immediately removed from the kiln and plunged into wood shavings while still glowing. They are then doused with water while still at about 750oC, withstanding thermal shock many times more violent than will be incurred during everyday use. Raku is traditionally confined to the studio environment, only the special claybody makes raku possible on this scale. Earthfire, along with Hotart, manufacture the only such raku production items in the world! The elemental nature of the raku process makes every pot as unique as a finger print. Our glazes are not colour pigments, they are metallic deposits caused by reduction (oxygen starvation during  

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firing) of a metal oxide. Immersion in sawdust has the effect of even more unpredictable reduction as well as imprinting carbon in all the surface hairline crackle of the shock-cooled glaze.