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Chiles students embrace unpredictability of metallic glazes

‘Sometimes you stumble upon something and you don’t know where it’s going to go but you just risk it.” These wise words from Chiles High School 12th-grader Katie Parmalee would make raku masters proud. A…

‘Sometimes you stumble upon something and you don’t know where it’s going to go but you just risk it.” These wise words from Chiles High School 12th-grader Katie Parmalee would make raku masters proud. A Japanese ceramic technique, raku originated in the 16th century. Though the western version differs from the traditional eastern practice, the guiding philosophy remains intact – embrace the unpredictable.

Chiles art teacher, Teresa Coates, explained that in art, “a lot of times the process is more important than the product.” Raku is one example and she wanted her students to experience it first-hand. She applied for and received an Arts Education Grant from the Council on Culture & Arts. With the grant funds supplied by Kia of Tallahassee, she was able to purchase the necessary tools and equipment including “raku glazes which are very expensive.”

After Coates presented the background and fundamentals, her students researched raku on their own and created hand-built pots. The pots were bisque fired in a traditional kiln to drive off the moisture in the clay, then they were ready to accept the glaze. “The most dazzling glazes have copper in them and the higher the copper content the more metallic and mystical looking it is,” said Coates.

Twelfth-grader McKenzie Teems experimented with a resist glazing technique. “I taped off two strips,” she explained. With the tape in place, she glazed her bisque fired pot. “Then I peeled off the tape,” revealing the unglazed areas which, when put through the raku process, “would become black where I had taped it off.” Even with this forethought and planning, McKenzie acknowledged “you never really know what you’re going to have in the end.”

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