Raku Results : Foil Saggar Pots

When I finished my raku course, I tried not to post all my photos at once.  But suddenly a month has gone by, and I still have many to post.  So far I've posted photos from the firing, then the horsehair raku pots, the glazed raku pots and pendants, my naked raku pot, and a peek at my raku lady on display at Shadbolt Center for the Arts.

One of the raku methods I was least familiar with, and didn't know if I'd be satisfied with the outcome, was the foil saggar firing.  We were told to collect up various organic materials, and bring them to class.  Dried seaweed, fertilizer, horse dung (I was very tempted to collect some at the equestrian center, but I'm glad I didn't), dried rose petals, copper wire, etc.

Here is my first pot, getting wrapped in the organic materials and foil :

I can't remember all that was in there, but from the photo, I see pine cones, bottle caps, horsetails (which contain silica), wood shavings, sea weed, some immature cottonwood fluffs, and a sprinkle of "magic dust".

I wrapped the pot itself in copper strands (from a pulled apart metal scrubby) and the bottle cap.

The second pot had similar ingredients, as well as dried burdock, and some pellets of fertilizer.  It was also wrapped in the copper wire, bottle caps, but also cotton string which had been soaked in salt, and some fresh rhododendron flowers :

They were then wrapped in foil and fired, and the following week we collected them, and unwrapped them, to reveal our finished pots.  Here are some of them, still wrapped in foil.  One of mine on the bottom shelf is peeking out :

Here are the final pots from a couple of different angles.  I'm pretty pleased with the result :

Here is a closeup of the first one :

...and the second one :

Here's a table full of my classes's creations.  I love that one in the front (bottom left in the photo) with the dramatic blackish pink lines.  These were also formed by the same copper strands as I used, but somehow the location in the kiln or perhaps another ingredient contributed to the dramatic colours.

It was fascinating to see the wide range of colours, from the pinks to oranges, to shades of grey and black.

Stay tuned for the horsehair raku plates, and the obvara raku fired pieces, when I find time to post again.