Community Contributed

Raku and pit firing at Rosalie's house

Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T16:51:52+00:00
These photos were taken during a pottery firing session.
DateApril 2010
LocationManakau

The firing was held at Rosalie Blake's house in Manakau at ANZAC weekend 2010.

There was a gas fired brick kiln built by Roger for the Raku firing and a pit used for the pit firing. The pizza oven was made by Rosalie, and the resulting pizzas were fantastic.

Raku is an ancient Japanese firing technique, where the fired pieces (at around 900 degrees celsius) are removed and plunged into sawdust, then cold water. For the pit firing, pieces are placed on sawdust floor of the pit, onto which is placed torn up newspaper then dry wood, and set alight, then covered (roofing iron in our case). The pit is left for a day or two, then the pieces are removed.