Raku workshop

My pottery class had a raku workshop on Saturday. It was an all day event. We started at 8am. Special clay and glazes are used for raku. They need to withstand the extreme temperature changes. You fire the kiln up to temperature (not really sure exactly what temp) then you take the pieces out and put them in saw dust. The saw dust catches on fire. It is used to pull all of the oxygen away from the pot which creates the interesting metalic colors of raku.