The evolution of an artists practice is driven by a number of things- access to materials and equipment, training, the excitement of the new and the innovative. Certainly the interest of potential buyers is a factor.

For a long time, one of my favorite ways to create in the studio involved a method I’ve sometimes called ‘Raku Mosaic’. I would take leather-hard vessels and carve surface designs into the matrix. Once bisque-fired, I would fill the carved lines with wax resist and use an array of Raku glazes to finalize the design.

I tried to utilize this technique on functional objects… and because of the porous nature and potential for leaching in Raku ware, this meant planters, lamps, fountains, and other non-food objects. The vessel in the photo above (with a design of the New Zealand Kakapo) is a recreation of a Maori instrument traditionally crafted from a gourd).

I also did a few tables with tile inlay… although I stopped doing this because of the relative fragility of a Raku surface.

Overall, I’ve ceased using this technique- certainly as a main focus in my practice. It’s extremely time consuming… and I became frustrated with the functional limits of Raku ware. I still have a limited array of these peices, however… and I’ll be marketing a few of them through this site over the next year.