Name: Spirit Ball
Process: Raku Firing
Material: Stoneware with Grog
To make a spirit ball you must start with the traditional way of pinching the clay to make 2 halves of a sphere and molding them together to make it whole. Before you form the two pinched clay pieces together you may add small balls of clay separated by paper towel to make it a rattling spirit ball. Once you form them together you must form the ball by patting it easily and smoothing it softly, this takes some patients. You have you learn how to work with the clay and not over work it. Once the ball was decently dry, the design was made my simply taking little pieces of clay away, in which you had to be careful areas weren’t too thin. The spirit ball was fired in the kiln, added a special glaze, and raku fired. Raku firing is a technique that created the cracks within the glaze, you basically set your piece on fire which is very interesting! The design of the object is interesting in that it is not completely smooth.
deidrafix 