Moons

Moons were accepted into an Arrowmont Crafts Center show several years ago. The full moon and the dark new moon are the poles of the psychological monthly cycle, and, the actual amount of moonlight showing on the earth in its 29 day cycle. The full moon is its height of visibility during the cycle, the culmination, (both of one’s feelings, and, what shows onto the earth). The new moon, the seed time, when things are underground, dark and unseen, is when the moon is in its unformed potential time at the beginning of its cycle. The art form is called Raku. ~An ancient Japanese firing technique that values what happens naturally and spontaneously in the firing, including splits and cracks. In a Raku firing the pieces are pulled from apex heat out of the white hot kiln and smothered in barrels of sawdust and smoked. The new moon’s black color is from smoke absorbed by the porous unglazed body during post-firing smoking. The full moon’s black crackles are smoke driven into the body, via the glaze cracks that open up during smoking. Raku crackles are due to extremely localized conditions of cooling temperature and clay thickness, hence no two Raku pieces will ever look exactly the same.