raku night~

NEXT RAKU: October 13th, 2012 Attend KC Clay Guild's Raku Night and take part in the fun and the amazing process of Raku!  We block the street off between 73rd Street and 74th Street on Wyandotte and label it 'The Raku Zone'. The KC Clay Guild sets up the raku kilns, reduction cans, and glaze booths outside so you can see, step by step, the raku firing procces. 4:30pm to 10:00pm First pot goes in at 5:00pm   /   Last pot goes in at 9:00pm This spring at Raku night... KCCG would like to thank... Musicians: David Regnier and the Silver Maggies  and Bill Sundahl for the rolling stage. Sponsors: Boulevard Brewing Co., Waldo Pizza, The Well, Brookside's Price Chopper, Farm to Market Bread, Accurso's and Scavuzzo's. Volunteers: Pyros, Glaze and Dremel Masters, Hot Doggers, Pottery Handlers...and all the other wonderful volunteers who helped make this our best Spring Raku Night ever! TICKETS May be purchased at the door the day of the event. Members: Adults $20  /  Children 12 and younger $10 Non-Members: Adults: $25 / Children 12 and younger $15 May 2011 Raku Night Slideshow

How It Works Included in the price of the ticket is food and drink and all of the following fun: Choose one of the hundreds of bisqued pieces created by our guild members. Glaze the bisqued piece with our special Raku glazes. See the pictures below for samples. Hand it to our kiln techs and they fire it for you! Then sit back and watch the whole process happen! You get to take it home that night! The whole process takes about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. You also get to choose a regular fired, already glazed food safe piece of pottery to eat and drink out of. While you are waiting for your piece to be fired, enjoy food and drinks donated by local restaurants and guild members. When ever possible we also have live music to entertain you while you are munching on your snacks and waiting for your piece. We also have a moonwalk, cotton candy and sidewalk chalk to entertain the kids! Not only that, but we will be giving away door prizes about every 30 minutes! Everybody gets 1 ticket (with paid admission) for a chance to win a door prize. More About Raku Raku: (Western Style) Rakuyaki, or Raku, is a Japanese firing process. A bisque piece is glazed with special raku glazes. It is fired in a small gas kiln with a removable top. When the piece reaches maturity the top is removed and the glowing white hot piece is moved via long tongs to a trashcan full of combustibles. ie. newspaper, sawdust, banana peals, leaves, bark... so on. The stuff inside the trash can instantly bursts into flames and then the lid is put on the can and the piece sits in the smoldering, smoking can. This causes the glaze to change colors unevenly giving it a flash of colors. The unglazed areas absorb this smoke/carbon and are turned black. White crackle glazes absorb the carbon into the cracks making them visible. After the pieces are cooled they are removed and gently scrubbed to reveal all the colors! Please Note: Raku pieces are not food safe. Keep them out of direct sunlight because the colors will fade. They are not water tight and should not be used for planting.

KC Clay Guild is grateful to these local businesses for sponsorship of our spring Raku event!  Please patronize our sponsors!