We call it NAKED raku because the surface of the pot is without glaze -
just the result of earth, fire, air, water... and chance.
The pot is hand-burnished and bisque-fired.
A layer of clay/slip is brushed on, and then another layer of clear glaze.
It is immediately fast-fired to about 1400 degrees.
The piece is removed -hot- from the kiln and smoked in a covered barrel.
The random crackle patterns result from this clay/slip/glaze/shell shrinking
and cracking as it heats, allowing the smoke to penetrate the shell.
The still-very-hot pot is then plunged into cold water so thermal-shock causes
the remaining clay/shell to pop off (hopefully), or sometimes be chiseled off.
The fatality rate is really quite high.
Finally, the pot is cleaned, buffed, polished & waxed back to its 'nekked' self!
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