Feathers

This is a relatively easy technique.  The hard part is getting the right kind of feather to work with.  I am lucky to have a brother with a pet emu.  His name is Kegstand and he has generously shared his beautiful feathers with me to create these pots. I’ve included a few pictures of this big boy down below. After your pots are Terra Sigged and bisque fired they are placed in a Raku Kiln which is brought up to approximately 1600 degrees F.  They are carefully taken out of the hot kiln with tongs.  When you apply a feather it instantly carbonizes onto the pot.  Pfff!  The trick here is waiting the correct amount of time before applying the feather.  If you do it too soon, it just looks like a black blob; if you wait too long you lose a lot of detail.  Emu feathers work great because they are sturdy and hold together when being applied.

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