Naked Raku and Related Bare Clay Techniques Paperback – March 1, 2012

This book is fantastic if you do raku, although it also covers briefly some other alternative techniques, such as saggar and smoke firing. This book is about the specific technique of Naked Raku, covering several different famous individuals (or couples in a few circumstances) who independently invented different styles of doing Naked Raku, and this covers those ways (single or double step) with different recipes, firing schedules and temperatures/cones to pull your pieces out of the kiln. It covers using just a slip (single) or using a slip and a sacrificial glaze (double or two step). It includes in a side bar a recipe for single step that goes up to about 1000C or cone 06 roughly, for those that would like to do Naked Raku at the same time or even on the same pots as other glazes which typically mature at about that temperature, which is a lot hotter than most recipes for Naked Raku (which tends to be pulled out at around 1500F or less). My only complaint with this book, which has a lovely introduction to Zen Ceramics, as well as thorough discussions of burnishing, using terra sigillatas (though I highly recommend Rhonda Willers book on terra sigillata for a complete overview of using them, that is one of my favorite and most recommended books for people who do ceramics of any kind), and grinding/polishing the pots in preparation for Naked Raku, which claybodies work best, etc- well my only complaint is that they don’t include a recipe for doing two step Naked Raku at 1000C or cone 06 as well, and there is one, in the book Alternative Kilns & Firing Techniques (it is called Ramon’s Naked Raku Slip and Ramon’s Transparent Retaining Glaze if you want to google and see if it is online anywhere, otherwise that is another fantastic book that you will definitely want on your reference shelf if you do any kind of alternative firing). Overall fantastic book- though a tip is if you are going to grind your pieces in preparation of doing Naked Raku or for any other reason, use diamond pads, either the hand pads or on an angle grinder or the small pads that come with a backing thingy that works in a Dremel or Fordham, don’t use silicon carbide Wet n’ Dry or worse regular sanding paper like they suggest in the book, takes too long and doesn’t get you the excellent polished feeling and literal glow that you can get with diamonds!

In researching naked raku, I have read everything I could find and watched several videos on you-tube. This is the most comprehensive resource I found. Each chapter is well organized and speaks to a different approach --- taking you step by step though the author's approach. The contributors are generous with their observations, formulas, and tips. I tried several approaches based on this book....with varying results but that is what raku is all about....this gave me a starting point.The one step raku formula did not behave at all like it does for the two authors of that process. After several attempts to adjust the recipes, I gave up and moved on to the two step process with some nice results right away. Re-reading the chapters has led to minor adjustments in the process.....and better results each time.

I absolutely love this! It has given me inspiration for further exploring the possibilities of my pottery

Very informative

Very informative, smooth reading and inclusive

Very informative. Would have liked a little more definition of the one step process.

Answered many questions and gave further information on topicA lot of good ideas and suggestions to develop ideas in this area. It will become a useful reference for further work