Alcohol Reducation Raku with Shawn Felts

Raku is pretty stunning.

I don't know that we need another raku video on this blog, admittedly, but there's something unique here that's worth seeing.

• I very much dig that the video here opens with a comment that Shawn Felts worked at Funke's Fired Arts (the ceramics store here in Cincy that we use for our supplies at Princeton HS). They've changed ownership and names since Shawn worked there, but they're still a good place.
• There's a whole lot of talking to start the video meaning it's really informative, but it would be awful to show in class. There's no way that students are going to pay attention until probably 19 minutes in - when the fire starts.
• I appreciate the full beard and the confidence with it around the fire.
• At about 13:40 he mentions that raku pottery all fades to black (oxidized) over time. I've not noticed that in the past, though I've only done raku for about a half dozen years. Is that fading anything that anybody has seen in their experience? I think our glazes might encase the reduced metal in a thicker glass layer, so that may not be the case for our process.
• Holy crap that furnace ramps quickly. He goes from room temp to 1750 F in about twenty minutes. That's a fast, frickin' ramp rate.
• So much of this seems like he's doing it because he's done it before and it worked. Comments like that the alcohol 'soaks into' the glaze make me think that the science is a little iffy in some of his explanations.
• It's at about 18:50 that the piece finally comes out of the kiln. 
• I'm still very much unsure of how the glazes work and all the science of raku. With my understanding of the science, the repeated sprays of alcohol are doing almost nothing because it's just burning off each time. Yes, oxygen is being used up and copper is reducing, but that is immediately lost when the hot pot is allowed to then sit in the air before being moved into the sand under the glass bowl.
• The glass bowl is the big reason why I'm posting this video. We actually get to see the reduction (at 21:15 with the last shot of alcohol into the reduction chamber), something that we never get to see because our reduction chamber is entirely opaque (metal paint cans.)
• I appreciate Shawn's impatience, something he mentions at 25.45...and again at 28:05.
• I wonder how much the time jumped at 24:15, because there's a clear edit. How long was the piece in the reduction chamber cooling down?  
• Can we talk Bernoulli's Principle when he blows the air in at 24:44?
• Holy crap...the color change right after the blow of air is a great money shot for the video. Actually seeing the reduced copper (shiny penny) change to oxidized copper (shiny blue, purple, green) is stunning.
• Does the spray with water just cool the glaze enough to not allow oxygen to move into or out of the glaze? That's my understanding but doesn't quite fit with Shawn's explanation.
• More edits at 26:14...27:30...30:35...31:35
• Who are the people watching this video? They don't look like they're dressed to get involved. Maybe this is just an open house situation.
• I never knew what grog was (28:40). I knew our raku clay had a bunch, and I kind of knew why (decrease thermal shock). I just never knew what grog was - already fired, pulverized clay so it doesn't shrink. 
• Shawn mentions at 28:50 that he could dunk the raku piece in water without it shocking but almost chuckles as if he wouldn't want to risk it. Hey, that's exactly what we do with our pieces.
• Some alcohol jokes at 30:10 - talks about the fumes tasting like rubbing alcohol and that Shawn's more a bourbon man than he is a rubbing alcohol man.