Raku Pottery

Raku pottery is a traditional form where the pots are fired at an intensive heat out of doors for a short period of time. Brixham Adult & Community Learning Centre has just offered a free short course with Tessa Aimes for eleven students who were funded by Learn Devon.

The Centre was inundated with students who wanted to attend this course and no wonder as the completed pots had a crackle glaze from the heat which gave them a beautiful lustre.

Tessa started the course on an experimental theme with each student creating several pots using different clays to see how they would react when fired. This initial session took place at Brixham College and then the pots were ‘biscuit' fired conventionally.

The next session took place in the beautiful surrounds of Lupton House, where the kiln was used to fire the pots after students had glazed them. A final firing took place at Brixham ACL to complete firing the large number of pots created.

During the course, students were introduced to Lupton and became aware of opportunities for volunteering, including helping in the Sanctuary Pottery based at the house. The group were all informed of further courses that they might like to progress onto at South Devon College and Plymouth Arts College.