Excitement crackled as fire burned, smoke filled the air, and the kiln vibrated with 1,800 degrees of heat. Nearby, students were waiting, eating lunch, trying on safety equipment in preparation for the kiln to complete its firing, or washing the carbon residue from their cooled ceramic pots. As the cooled carbon residue was scrubbed off the fired clay, students shared in the joy of discovery.
“Look at this color,” Morgan Soehnlein exclaimed as the depth of shades and texture were revealed. The young artist noted that the colors were formed in the glaze due to the extreme heat and reduction.
Soehnlein raced to a rolling cart, which held works that had been fired earlier in the morning. The junior returned with another of her pieces of art to compare the colors and textures of the two. Each unique. Each a product of planning, chemistry and nature. Each beautiful.
Other student artists gathered to compare the results.
This is the Montville Township High School in-school field trip to study Raku, the ancient Japanese art of firing pottery.
Each year, two Montville Township High School art teachers, Sharon Pflug-Moench and Paul Moench, organize the in-school field trip for Montville Township High School’s (MTHS) Ceramics students.
“We’ve been doing this for more years than I can count,” Pflug-Moench said when asked how many times MTHS students have had this unique STEAM opportunity.
Traditionally, the two teachers coordinate this full-day event in the fall and spring. This spring, art teacher Margaret “Peg” Travers assisted the team, as they added a third day on June 5, 2024, to meet the demand for kiln space.
Students look forward to this annual in-school field trip. While works are firing in the kiln or reduction chamber, students prepare for the next interaction with the pottery, or, since it is an in-school fieldtrip, they may pop out to attend a lab or class they would prefer not to miss.
“It is a great day,” said senior Frenchely Godet-Desmarais. The Ceramics creation was cooling on a brick nearby. When Godet-Desmarais’ vase was removed from the kiln it was placed on the brick and she immediately applied horse hair to burn a pattern onto the surface of the clay.
“Isn’t this beautiful?” Pflug-Moench asked the students. “Look at this,” she added, pointing to the irregular but balanced designs the burned horse hair left on the vase.
The hallmark of Raku is that the clay, or earthen, artwork is removed from the kiln at the height of the firing process. At that point, artists have two choices for the next step. The first choice is to use horse hair and/or feathers to burn a design into the hot clay object. The second choice is to place the hot clay object into a metal container, also known as a reduction chamber. For reduction, the hot item from the kiln is placed onto a bed of combustible material, such as straw or shredded paper. This action causes the combustible material to catch fire. More material is placed on top of the clay object. As the flames grow in intensity, a metal lid is tightly closed onto the flaming container. The lack of oxygen inside the container, combined with the heat and fire, causes a chemical reaction.
Many of the works of art that were placed in the metal container were glazed before being heated in the kiln. Some were not, and the carbon left behind during reduction creates a design on the bare clay. Either way, the chemical reactions inside the metal container, as the oxygen is pulled out of the clay, affect both the final color and finish on the work of art.
STEAM is Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. Raku is the study of how the natural elements of earth, air, fire, and water react under different circumstances.
Through Raku, students learn important information as each element interacts with the artwork at different temperatures, and with different substances, such as paper or straw.
Cooler air temperatures can slow down some parts of the process – even in the kiln -- resulting in different finishes. Additionally, the rapid changes in temperatures, from hot to cold, result in different colors and textures. But, too cold too quick, and the artwork can crack.
Raku pieces that have been glazed emerge from reduction with a metallic look. Those without glaze will have a black matte finish. A combination of finishes is often used to create patterns and textures. The pottery is then either cooled in the open air or more quickly with water. It is these harsh extremes, and a variety of steps along the way, that create the varied, vibrant and intense patterns and colors on the surface of the pottery.
The Raku pottery process defines the character of each work of art.
Pflug-Moench and Moench are married. On Raku days they arrive at MTHS extra-early with their trailer of kilns, metal-covered buckets, horse hair, feathers, diverse glazes, and combustible fuels like straw and shredded paper.
“This is the only public school we know of in New Jersey that teaches this technique on-site,” Moench said recently about the in-school Raku field trip.
The next scheduled in-school Raku firing field-trip is slated for fall 2024. Those Ceramics underclassmen who attended the MTHS in-school field trip on June 5, may already be implementing their growing knowledge of Raku and planning their approach to their 2024-2025 works of art.
A brief video of the June 5, MTHS Raku in-school field trip can be viewed at the Montville Township Public Schools YouTube Channel.
Montville Township High School is one of seven schools in the Montville Township Public Schools district.