• Studio potter and ceramics teacher for 30 years
• Co-producer and subject of "Claysong," a twelve-minute 16mm film shown nationally on TV in 1980 and available for showing any time Bay Area representative for Potters for Peace.

These Raku vases are thrown from stoneware clay, etched with flower, feather, jungle or cactus designs while damp, bisque fired, and then painted with glazes which contain metallic oxides. They are fired out of doors in a kiln which has a hole in the top through which the pieces can be seen. When the glazes appear shiny and smooth, the vases are removed red hot from the kiln with tongs, quickly put into metal containers containing pine needles, and covered. The speed with which the pieces are put into the air-tight containers determines the resulting colors. If a glaze containing copper, for example, is allowed to cool in the air, it will oxidize and turn green. If it is kept from oxygen while cooling, it will look copper-colored or develop other hues and flashes. Light colored glazes show a crackle pattern which results from the different composition of glaze and clay in the rapid cooling. The process involves an intense interaction between the elements and the potter.

Raku, also known as "California Flash Fire," is an engaging process. I've been making Raku pots off and on since 1963.

Leather-hard clay is perfect for drawing. Flowering plants, with their naturally varying forms and colors, lend themselves to being rendered in the naturally varying metallic Raku glazes.

The vases have been sealed inside and out with varnish so that the porous clay and crackle glaze will hold water without sweating. The metallic glazes on the outside can be polished with copper cleaner if they become dull (oxidized) over time from contact with moisture.

My hope is that the intensity of involvement of the Raku process is communicated to the viewer of the pieces.