Saturday, April 24, 2010

RAku Donut


I fired this donut in my microwave...yes, my microwave! I have never been able to do raku in my kiln, because it has exposed elements, and also because it is trunk style and I can't even imagine the blast of heat if I lifted the lid with the temp at 1700. I had heard about microwave kilns for melting glass, but didn't know they would work for ceramic.

How cool is that?

5 comments:

Indian Creek Studios said...

just a regular reheat the coffee kind of microwave? Tell us more...

Shaterra Clay said...

Yes, the same microwave that you use in the kitchen. There is a kiln on the market...3 sizes. Depending on the wattage of the microwave and the size of the kiln, it take 4-8 minutes to fire.

Mary Harding said...

That is so cool. What a great big door this opens. Wow!!

Shaterra Clay said...

I did more pieces today. The problem I am having is with the backs. I don't like leaving the back unglazed. I glazed backs and tried it, thinking that they would be hot enough to just scrape off the bottom of the kiln, but some glaze stuck. I saw on the Big Ceramic Store web site that they were using glass release on the bottom (they were using the kiln for melting glass). Maybe that would work. There has to be a way...

Marie Cramp said...

I love that! How amazing that the Microwave would be able to do that! Great job :)