raku with rakhee

rakhee kane jadeja joined auroville, an international township near pondicherry, in 2001 and since then she has been creating objects of beauty both utilitarian and artistic in character. she works in wood fired stoneware, high fired ceramics and also in Terracotta, glazed as well as unglazed. She is one of the few studio potters in the area who continues to work in terracotta, creating various patterns, textures and small toys & objects that have a very earthy feel besides their designer value. she has a small self sustaining studio where she makes production pottery as well as her own sculptural works.
rakhee was preparing for her show in delhi, matti the terracota show organised by delhi blue and she wanted to do a raku firing with her pots with terracota. i thought of tagging along as i ahd never seen a raku firing before. ray, adil, chinmayie also joined. so one beautiful dreamy morning i landed up in rakhees house all ready to see the firing.
it was such a fascinating process to watch, just the way pots while are baking in the heat are taken pout and put in sawdust and later in water are forced in a way to cool down, the result is amazing. the glaze breaks in that shock- shock of sudden cold and u peal off the glaze- therefore the name: naked raku.
that day rakhee didnt achieve what she wanted to, but eventually she tried many other ways to retain the redness of the terracota clay and by the time of the show she got what she wanted
so some images of raku with rakhee (i like the sound of this!)