Festival Fun

As many of you know, Ginger Kryger is a longtime Ruston resident who is very talented in both pottery art and gardening, among other things. Ginger and her friend Karen are bringing a raku artist to the music fest this year (Saturday, September 6th). Here is some background on the art and plans for our celebration to wet your appetite!

American raku is not like the original Japanese raku or regular glaze-fired ceramics. In American raku, the bisque-fired pieces are decorated with particular types of glazes and quickly fired to 2000 degrees or so. Once the glaze is properly melted, the pieces are removed from the kiln immediately—while they are still hot! The pots are placed in cans with straw, leaves or newspaper. Once this flammable material ignites, lids are clamped down. There is flame and smoke and then the hardest part—waiting. The end result is vibrant and smokey metallic-flashed blues, greens, copper or crackled glazes. These pieces are not for food use or to hold flowers. Each one is a work of art.

The F.I.N.E. Mudhens have contracted with Clay Art Center to do a raku firing for the Music Festival. There will be two men with two kilns and all the supplies necessary to decorate and fire pots. We will have small (ish) bisque-fired ceramic pieces available for the public to purchase and decorate for about $10. The raku artists from Clay Art will do the actual firing of decorated pieces. The public can stay and watch the process or return in 45 minutes or so to retrieve their decorated pieces. I believe the raku firers will be available for about 6 hours. It is really hot and tiring work.

Sounds wonderful! Hope you'll join us!
Karen