Formidable Winged Raku Rhino

Formidable Winged Raku Rhino

This large light grey raku rhinoceros, embodies endurance and ancient strength. Its body marked from smoke creating realistic colours for Rhino skin, but the glaze has a slight pearlescent hue. From its body extend matte peacock-glazed wings, shimmering with iridescent tones, delicate and soft. The contrast speaks to the tension between nature’s resilience and human impact, transforming the piece into a quiet guardian of a fragile, changing world.

Raku is a visually striking and somewhat unpredictable method of firing ceramics, often described as a performance-like process.

Unlike conventional firing, where pieces cool slowly inside the kiln, in raku the work is removed while still glowing red hot. It is then placed into a container filled with combustible materials such as sawdust, paper, or leaves. These materials ignite, creating a smoky, low-oxygen environment.

This rapid change produces two key effects:

• The glaze develops fine crackles in organic, unpredictable patterns

• Carbon from the smoke penetrates the surface, darkening the clay and accentuating those crackles

The piece is then cooled—often in water—which sets these effects permanently.

In essence, raku is a process shaped by heat, rapid change, and atmosphere, where the artist guides the outcome, but chance and natural forces play an essential role.