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in so much as there has always been this sort of argument on going between art and craft. He was the first person to use the pot as a fine art object."
RN: "You work in ceramics but your specialty is raku. What is special about this particular technique? What is the most challenging aspect of your art?"
SZ: "I love ceramics and textiles because of the tactile quality and that naturally evolved into doing the raku and smoke firing. Raku firing is my most favorite technique because you have such a close association with the pot throughout the entire process. It is a technical process that actually makes the pot 'and then in firing the pot it’s sort of a shake of the dice."
"With raku or smoke firing you throw the pot, glaze it and then when you fire the pot it is about a 20 minute experience for a kiln load. The raku kiln is an outdoor kiln. You put the pot in the kiln and quickly bring the temperature up to about 2000 degrees, which causes the pot to glow bright red. With tongs you take the pot out of the kiln and put it into a chamber with a reduced atmosphere full of combustibles like leaves or sawdust. When the pot touches these combustibles, they just explode into flame. You quickly smother the flames and the unglazed parts of your clay draw the carbon out of the smoke turning your pot black, black, black. The metals in the raku glaze start to have a chemical reaction and you have to stop the reaction so you immediately remove the pot from the chamber and dunk it into a bath of cold water."
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