Raku is a great ceramic firing process that I have fallen in love with from the moment I first saw it!

I am spending the rest of my life trying to perfect and master it.

It is alchemy and faith combined!

Raku is a process that requires a clay body to be very strong, resilient and able to extreme heat shock!  Kind of like us Norwegians!

I create my Raku Clay vessel or hand made tile and let it dry.  The Raku Clay is so very forgiving for the extremes I push it in form and function.

Then you bisque fire the Raku Clay Vessel or tile up to 1850 degrees F.  This Kiln firing usually takes two days with my electric kiln and that is quite quick compared to simular wood fired kilns. 

Then after your Raku Clay Vessel or Tile is bisqued.  We can get ready to Raku! 

Usually I fire about a hundred peices of Raku Ware in one day.  I start in early morning and finish late at night.  This is a very exhausting and labor intense firing process when doing production work.  Although, if you want to raku and fire two or three times an afternoon with good friends, good food and Great Humor, it is a really relaxing fun experience.  The more hands the less the work.  The Clay Empire is a sole proprietor, so if my lovely wife is not able to raku it is just me, myself and I along with the poultry, livestock, dog Daisy, and cats.  Honestly, when you are raku'n, Life is beautiful.  Even when your glazes are not turning out and things are just not working, it is still a very good day to be alive and doing what you love.

Placing the Raku Clay Vessel in the RAKU kiln specially designed to heat the Raku ware up to 1850 degrees F. in less than 40 minutes!  Talk about fast and furious!  Then as the raku ware reaches temperature a brilliant orange glow the glazes will start to glisten and lay down to a glassy texture.  Then, life is going to get a little hot!

Did you know that I play with fire for a living?

I open my Raku Kiln at 1850 degrees F.(it not only sounds crazy, it is!  I love it!) I grab the glowing orange raku clay vessel or tile now raku glazed, and place it in a nest of combustables such as wood chips or leaves.

Whoosh!  The combustables ignite and bathe the Raku Clay Vessel or Tile with flames!  This is awesome at night.  Then, Just as the entire cumbustable nest is engulfed, I place an air tight lid over it all.  What am I doing? 

I am creating an atmosphere where the flame and heat will have to look for oxygen throughout the environment!  The flame and heat and fuel actually pulls the oxygen in the metallic oxide out of the glazes we covered our Raku Vessel or Tile.  Now the metallic shows through and we can attain brilliant metallic colors on our clay vessels or tiles. 

The Carbon from the fire soaks into the exposed clay body where I purposely did not glaze and it gives me brilliant black lines to offset the beauty of the Raku Glazes.  The true test of a Raku master is in the use of that black clay body line.  This sepperates the faux raku from the actual product.  You can purchase comercial glazes that look simular to Raku, but the real thing is brilliant alchemy!

The Raku Vessel or tile is then cooled either with water or left out in the air as you pull out your next load.  There is never enough time for the oooo's and ahhhhh's when you are in production!  That comes at the end of the day after clean up when all your hard work is brilliantly ready for sale and eventually finding it's home with you.  I give away little peices of The Clay Empire with every work of art or craft.  Your purchase, no matter how big or small, just helps make all this possible and I can not thank you enough. 

Raku does have a down side! 

Clean up!  Each peice has to be hand scrubbed and cleaned to remove the fire scale that hides the beauty beneath.  Every work of art or craft is different.  With so many variables, each peice is unique and simply meant for only you!  You will see your peice in my eBay store and you will just know it was made personally by myself, Chad Everson just for you!

If you have anyother questions about Raku let me know!

Chad Everson

Raku Clay Artist 

The Friends of the Princeton Library have contracted with me for three years to offer their overstock and donated books that they can not find room for in their Library.  They are committed to finding these books good homes.  The profit they make from book sales goes to fund many of their wonderful offerings such as: 

• Bringing in Authors and Illustraters for book readings
• Buying new books for the library
• Providing staffing and additional space for the library
• Keeping their volunteer staff running on all cylinders and enjoying continuing educational opportunities and conferences
• Putting good used books in good homes

I hope you keep coming back and bidding to win with every auction! 

If you say you saw this blog when you purchase an item, purchase anyother item/s and shipping is on me for any additional item!

I am really excited to get my first blog post going here on eBay!  I love eBay!  I actually started my business on eBay 3 years ago!  I made enough money to buy my clay equipment and get The Clay Empire up and moving.  Running into socialist public school backlash against an individual because I was doing something they could not!  I was making kids learn and get excited about learning!  We really have a desperate problem in our public schools today!  Thankfully I have found home school, church and organizations more than happy to watch my little clay empire grow and ignite imaginations! 

I am also back on ebay because, I love the ease of use and I am actually hoping that my eBay store can become my only point of sale.  Soon I will actually sell my classes on eBay as well.  For those of you that are too far away to fly me out to your home school coop, I will put some curriculumn packets together and class kits so that you have all the materials needed to ignite your students imaginations! 

My other blog is www.grizzlygroundswell.com  There you will find my political ideas and the grizzly groundswell movement that is sweeping the country as a prairie fire!

Remember, the most conservative among us are also the most creative! 

Conservative Creations Abound in this world!