10/09/2026
This is my first raku firing up close and personal. Denis Di Luca (Denis Di Luca) very kindly fired a vase of mine at the recent and rather amazing ClayZieFest. I was intrigued to watch his calm and intense technique, conjuring flame and rapid ignition and cooling to pierce the glaze in super-complex networks of carbonised threads. He left the bottom half unglazed to preserve the rapid set of incisions Iโd made in the clay. They got filled with a wonderful metallic black colour. It was sudden and furious and I can imagine returning to this.