Raku Firing with Marcia Selsor
In this installment of the Ceramic Arts Daily Presents video series, Marcia Selsor draws from her extensive experience with raku firing to show a variety of techniques that can easily be done in any raku kiln. She starts out with the basics of raku, covering equipment, safety, and suitable clays and glazes for the process. From there, she moves on to preparing pots for firing with a variety of decorative techniques. Finally, it’s time to play with fire! Marcia demonstrates four exciting post-firing techniques for the raku kiln: basic raku, horsehair and feather raku, saggar firing, and obvara. If you’ve been wanting to experiment with raku and other post-firing techniques, this video will get you off to a great start!
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 - Basics
- Chapter 2 - Safety
- Chapter 3 - Clays
- Chapter 4 - Glazes
- Chapter 5 - Decorative Techniques
- Chapter 6 - Contrasting Color
- Chapter 7 - Terra Sigillata
- Chapter 8 - Saggar Firing
- Chapter 9 - Cracked Surface
- Chapter 10 - Firing
- Chapter 11 - Feather Horse Hair
- Chapter 12 - Decorative Saggar
- Chapter 13 - Obvara Firing
- Chapter 14 - Waxing & Buffing
- Chapter 15 - Review
- Conclusion
- Bonus - Building Brackers Kiln
About the Artist
Marcia Selsor holds a BFA in Ceramics from the Philadelphia College of Art and an MFA from Southern Illinois University–Carbondale. She is a Professor Emerita at Montana State University–Billings, where she taught ceramics for 25 years. During her tenure at MSU–Billings, Selsor received two Fulbright Scholars’ Awards; one to Spain in 1985-86 to research traditional potters, and one to Uzbekistan in 1994 to teach ceramics at the Tashkent Institute of the Arts. Selsor has served as president and most recently on the advisory board of the Potters Council, as well as on the board of directors of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). She has had artist residencies in Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Canada, and the U.S. and has taught workshops nationally and abroad. She has written for Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated and is an active contributor to the Ceramics Arts Daily Forum. To learn more about Marcia, please visit https://www.marciaselsorstudio.com/