The Shawnee Mission South art classes are known for putting on events that showcase their student’s work. One such event that occurred  Friday, Dec. 16 after several postponements was  Raku Day. It was an all day event where students could come and participate and they sold warm snacks such as s’mores and hot cocoa. This event was an opportunity for students to come and fire pottery, using a technique known as Raku.

“Its an ancient firing process,” art teacher Cortney Dougherty said.

It’s a long process that requires a lot of manpower. That’s where the students who came in could help.

“What we do is we move our kilns outside,” Dougherty said. “We heat them up to about 1,858 degrees roughly. We take the lid off at the point when the glaze is molten, and [the pots] are orange hot. We take them off with tongs, we put them into a trash can full of combustible materials (we just use sawdust from our shop class that they graciously donate). You throw stuff on top, it flames up, we put a lid on it  and what that does is it gets all the oxygen out of the environment.”

It’s a firing process that many consider unique.

“You get these really cool metallic finish that you can’t replicate any other way but this,” Dougherty said.

She considers this event a great opportunity for students interested in art  to learn about ceramics.

“It’s just a really nice way for kids to see what happens in a kiln because it’s very hard to describe what happens there so this is a way for them to see it,” Dougherty said.