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Clayton Bailey Press 22545654644 |
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BARE-HANDS RAKU! |
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demonstration of Internal Combustion Ceramics,
using the apparatus pictured here was
presented at the NCECA- Conference (National
Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts) at
Madison, Wisconsin, in 1974.
"The bare hands of the artist are more sensitive to touch, and can feel what they are doing better without heavy asbestos gloves. The raku process is more exciting with bare hands too, and you don't have to go home and take a shower afterwards, because there's no smoke!"
Clayton Bailey - Raku Artist
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"Clayton Bailey was a
participant in a seminar on alternative
sources of fuel for the firing of ceramic
kilns as a part of a national conference on
ceramics held in Madison, WI, March 28-30,
1974. After a few sober potters told of their
efforts to find other sources of fuel, Bailey
came on stage and set up his kiln made of
fabric, which was attached to a ceramic
control box. On top of the control box were
two long wires. Bailey explained that he had
discovered a new method of firing pottery
which might revolutionize ceramics. He had
invented internal combustion ceramics. This
involved, he said, mixing horse manure with
clay. He brought out a bucket of fresh horse
manure and spread it on the floor of the stage
and proceeded to mix it by hand with clay.
Then he placed a piece of this mixture in his
kiln, noting that he was going to demonstrate
bare-hands raku, meaning he intended to pull
the piece out red-hot with his bare hands.
Dressed in a white doctors coat, Bailey went
over to his control box and began playing with
his switches. He said that he would send
several thousand watts of electricity into the
kiln which would ignite the gas in the horse
manure and this would fire his piece
instantly. No other source of fuel or long
hours of kiln-firing were necessary, he
explained. The lights in the theater were
turned down. Slow, rhythmic sparks began to
climb the wires coming out of Bailey's control
box, and strange noises were heard coming from
the box. Suddenly, a rather loud explosion
shook the audience and a terrible odor, along
with hair, horse manure, etc..., came flying
up out of the kiln on stage and into the
audience. Bailey reached in and pulled out a
partially translucent, red-glowing finished
piece, and proudly showed it to the audience
of cheering potters. Bailey has become a
performer and a magician - after long years of
performing as a pot-maker and kiln-firer."
"Pottery to Amateur Science", Bernard Pyron -1974 (Unpublished Manuscript) After the lecture, the audience is invited to examine a copy of Bailey's book: "Bare Hands Raku: the book that shocked the ceramic world" When its metal cover is opened, a shock is delivered to the bare hands of the reader. The Bare Hands Raku apparatus in the Leslie Ceramics collection in Berkeley, features a Tesla coil for high-frequency ignition of the horse manure and has a built-in ozone air freshener. Bailey promises: "It provides all the fun of traditional raku, without the usual smells and discomforts, and it can be used in your living room."
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Infra Heat - A special, non hazardous low
temperature heat effect produced by
incandescent electric light bulbs "Infra Heat
utilizes electromagnetic radiation from the
visible spectrum instead of the more hazardous
hyperthermic heat. The "Infra Heat" provides
the cheery feeling of a fire or a "red-hot"
kiln without the danger of burning your
fingers or catching something on fire.
Examples of the utilization of infra heat are:
"Bare Hands Raku" and "Internal
Combustion Ceramics".
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