Raku bowls – Collaboration Osprey Studio

Together with our friends at Osprey Studio, we have produced several matcha bowls, but this Saturday morning we got to be a part of a particularly exciting process. The bowls were already shaped, fired, and ready for the final firing with a thin layer of glaze.

After 45 minutes in a gas oven, through three different temperature stages, the bowls were carefully lifted into a barrel filled with wood shavings. As soon as they came into contact with the shavings, they caught fire, and we added even more. The bowls were then placed in a water bath to cool down quickly. Then the process of trying to achieve the beautiful and unpredictable surface began.

Using steel wool, we rubbed away the soot and carbon that had encased the bowls. Slowly we reveal a network of cracks in the glaze that allow the jet-black clay to shine through and make each bowl as unique as a fingerprint.