Raku-Fired Horsehair Wall Platter

Steps:

1. Prepare the clay by wedging it. Throw the clay on the wheel and proceed to center the clay.

2. Throw a tall cylinder.

Steps 4-6

3. Open up the cylinder until it stretches and drops down into a platter form.

4. Dry the platter with a hair dryer to help stiffen it and hold its shape. Smooth the inside perfectly with a rib tool.

5. Add decorative lines and a texture design with the pattern roller.

Steps 8-9

6. Cut the platter from the wheel using a wire tool before removing it from the wheel. Let it dry to a leather hard stage for approximately 12 hours.

7. Flip the platter upside down and trim the bottom of it so that a wire will fit in the foot to hang later. Let the platter dry to the bone dry stage for approximately 3-4 days.

Steps 10-11

8. Bisque-fire the platter in the electric kiln. Remove it from the kiln when cool.

9. Glaze the decorative lines in the piece with black cone 05/06 glaze.

Steps 12-13

10. Fire to 1835-degrees or about four hours and cool to 1350-degrees before removing from the kiln.

11. Pull the platter from the kiln at 1350-degrees using raku tongs. Place it in a trashcan with newspaper and combustible materials. The piece will ignite the paper helping it to cool more slowly.

Step 14

12. Place a piece of bailing twine on the platter to begin the marking process. Add horsehair strands until the raku wall platter design is completed. Note: Add two or three horsehair strands at a time.

Steps 15-17

13. While the horsehair wall platter is still in the trashcan, spray the platter with a ferric chloride solution to achieve an orange and rust coloration.

14. Remove the raku-fired wall platter from the trashcan with raku tongs. Let the platter cool.

15. Wash the raku-fired horsehair wall platter with soap and water. Dry.

Steps 18-19

16. Apply black permanent ink to the textured design area. Let dry.

17. Wrap a piece of wire around the foot so that the wall platter can be hung or add felt pads to the bottom.

By the time Brad Bachmeier was 15, it was already clear that he had a gift working and coaching kids. And since he liked to paint and draw, his mother suggested he become an art teacher. Yet it wasn’t until his junior year in college that Brad first worked with clay, and once he did, there was no looking back. Today, when he isn’t getting high school kids excited about art, he’s finding his own excitement with a variety of ceramics pieces, like the unique horsehair raku-fired vases, vessels and platters.

Website: www.bachmeierpottery.com