Artistic fire on the streets of Sisters

Raku artist James Sant played out his pyrotechnic pottery skills in spectacular fashion Friday night in front of Clearwater Gallery on Cascade Avenue.

He placed the pots, glazed by gallery visitors, into the fiery kiln, took them up to 1,800 degrees F. When the glaze looked right, he pulled the pots from the kiln at full heat, waved the bright red incandescent glowing pots in the air, and then plunged the clay pots into a small garbage can full of shredded paper, smothering the resulting flames with a tight-fitting lid.

After an artistically judged length of time, he pulled the pots from the ashes and plunged them into cold water, "freezing" the color changes and setting the now-cracked glaze. The result was a beautiful, cracked-finish glazed Raku pot of many colors.

"This is a dance of oxidation and reduction, a chemistry experiment," said Sant. "Once the lid is on, the oxygen is depleted (by the fire). This robs the metal of its oxygen and reduces the metal, turning the copper to red, cobalt to gun metal. When the lid comes off the oxygen floods back in, the metals can bring back their oxygen (changing colors again). Plunging it into water freezes the color."

Sant said with a smile, "It is all up to the Raku gods; how quickly the pot comes out of the can, how cold it is outside, how much moisture is in the air, all that goes into why the color did what it did."

There was a natural circulation of visitors to the gallery. The fire and sparks would draw patrons outside, and the cold would drive them back inside where there was beautiful art, good music, and complimentary wine, cider and beer served with hot chili and cornbread. Those inside were serenaded by Doug and Katie Cavanaugh.

"Celebrating the warmth of the season" is the theme of the five open-house presentations offered at Clearwater, each with a different theme. The open houses started just after Thanksgiving. The last of these seasonal get-togethers will be offered on Friday, December 23 from 5 to 7 p.m. Visit http://www.clearwaterstudio.com for details.

Dan and Julia Rickards opened their Cascade Avenue gallery in 2002.

"Bringing the beauty of creation into the homes of our friends, that is why we do this," said Julia. "That's why we moved to Sisters, was to be part of something small, so you could know the people that come in. All the past Fridays have been about that the community just wants to be together."