Prancing Ponies … $450

Along with birds. Bears, wolves, and horses make up the top four of my favorite subjects. This work, in a series of four panels features four silhouettes of prancing Friesian horses each against a horse hair raku fired background panel.  

This work is approximately 35” by 16” and constructed by hand from an off-white earthenware clay body. The Friesian ponies were traditionally fired in a low-temperature firing and the background panels were fired in the horsehair raku firing technique.  The horsehair raku consists of each piece being bisque fired to cone 04 (1945 degrees F), then glazed with three coats of a low-temperature white glaze.  After each piece was glazed, they were placed in a specially designed raku kiln and quickly brought up to cone 06 (1828 degrees).  Once at temperature, the kiln was turned off and opened.  The individual pieces were then taken out of the kiln and laid out in a bed of sand and draped with strands of horsehair (from the mane). As the horsehair comes in contact with the hot ceramic it shrivels and burns. The remaining carbon smoke and ash from the horsehair adheres to the ceramic surface creating truly unique decorative patterns.

Here are some “in progress” photos as I was working on its design through completion.