Raku by K

​I was born in Dundee, then moved to the North East of England when my father's work took him there. So most of my childhood was spent in Newcastle. I moved to London to study and work before returning to Scotland in 1985 and have lived in Perthshire ever since.

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My experience of pottery began with sculpture classes in the wake of my three sons leaving home, I particularly enjoyed working with clay and was recommended to look into pottery lessons with Cathrine Holtet, Dundee. Cathrine has been a great teacher and mentor to me, encouraging my creative side. I purchased a secondhand electric kiln for use at home and initially started working with earthenware. An interest in traditional pit firing and other types of kilns led me to exploring the idea of Raku firing. My interest only deepened after a course with Rob Sollis, who introduced me to Raku firing and I have developed this further myself. With the help of my husband, I built a gas fired Raku kiln for use at home.

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The creation of Raku pottery is a very natural process; the mixing of clay and water, the tempering in fire and smoke. It is a simple process that can nonetheless produce beautifully complex and unpredictable patterns in the finished piece.

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From this I have moved on to Naked, Horsehair and Feather Raku while experimenting with various glazes.

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I still like to work with earthenware, stoneware and porcelain at times, but the majority of my work is now in Raku clay.

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Have a look at examples of my work in the Gallery.