Everything that happens at a raku workshop, and every rule that keeps it fun.
Raku is loud, fast, and full of adrenaline. It is also the only thing we do where a mistake burns somebody. So we choreograph it, we practice it, and we talk about it out loud before anyone strikes a flame. Read this, pass the quick check, agree to the rules, and you walk away with a Raku Workshop Safety Certification card.
Three honest things about this card.
We would rather tell you what this is not, first, so nobody shows up with the wrong idea in their head.
It does not replace the safety meeting.
Every single workshop opens with a safety meeting in person, and you have to be there for all of it. Show up more than ten minutes late and you do not participate, card or no card. That has never been about paperwork. It is about the group knowing where you will be standing.
It is not required.
Nobody gets turned away from a raku workshop for not having one. You can register, show up, listen, and fire your pots without ever seeing this page. The certification exists because knowing what happens next makes the whole night better.
What it actually gets you.
Mostly peace of mind, which is worth more than it sounds when you are about to walk toward an open kiln. It also gives us room down the road to let certified members start setting up while the safety portion runs, which gets everybody home earlier.
Who can take this
Current and past members of The Clay Hole. Raku workshops are eighteen and over, with one exception: a fourteen to seventeen year old may participate if a parent or legal guardian is also participating and stays present the entire time. Everyone signs a fresh raku waiver before every workshop, every time, through our waiver service.
Get your Raku Workshop Safety Certification.
Four steps. No video, no login, nothing to install. Your answers stay on this device until you finish, and then the completion emails the studio.
Who is getting certified?
Your name goes on the card exactly as you type it, so put it in the way you want to read it.
Now agree to the rules, one set at a time.
Five sets. Read each one and agree to it before the next appears. The quick check afterward comes straight out of these, and so does the night itself.
Set one: people come before pots.
Set two: when the kiln opens, listen.
Set three: what you wear.
Set four: smoke and fumes.
Set five: everything is hotter than it looks.
Quick check.
Ten questions, and you need all ten. Get one wrong and we tell you why, then you try that question again. There is no penalty and no score kept anywhere.
A pot slips in your tongs while you are walking it to your can. What do you do?
Agree to the rules, then go sign the real waiver.
Two things left. The first one happens here. The second one deliberately does not.
By ticking the box below I am agreeing to the following, for every raku workshop I take part in at The Clay Hole:
- I understand that raku involves an outdoor kiln reaching almost 2000 degrees, open flame, molten glaze, smoke, potentially toxic fumes, hot metal tools, and several people moving quickly in a small area at the same time.
- I will attend the entire safety meeting at the start of every workshop. If I arrive more than ten minutes late I will not participate, and I understand there is no refund for that.
- I will follow every instruction given by the workshop leader, an instructor, or authorized staff immediately and without arguing, including instructions shouted at me during an unload.
- I will wear closed toed shoes, long pants, and my hair tied back, in natural fibers rather than synthetics, with nothing loose or dangling.
- If I have a piece in a kiln load, I will be wearing goggles, a welding apron, and full length welding gloves, fully on, before we reach temperature.
- I will never put the safety of my pottery ahead of another person. If it comes to it, I will set the piece down or let it go.
- I will not touch a reduction can, a lid, or the pottery inside without welding gloves on, no matter how long it has been sitting.
- I will not reach into the kiln. Only the instructor or a trained helper loads it.
- I will not submerge a narrow necked or closed form in the water tubs while it is hot, and I will not touch a sprayed piece with a bare hand before it has been submerged.
- I will stay at least four to five feet behind the furthest cans whenever I am not part of the firing that is happening.
- I will not breathe smoke or fumes coming off a can, and I will take a breath of fresh air before approaching an open lid.
- I will not participate under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, illegal drugs, or any medication that affects my balance, judgment, or reaction time.
- I will stop and move to a safe place if I feel unsafe, dizzy, sick, overwhelmed, or unable to follow instructions, and I will speak up immediately if I see anyone else in danger.
- I will help clean up at the end. Nobody leaves until it is all done.
- I understand that The Clay Hole may end my participation at any time for safety reasons, without a refund.
- I understand that raku is unpredictable and that my pottery may crack, shatter, discolor, or fail entirely, and that this is part of the process rather than anyone's fault.
These are the studio's operating rules, not the waiver. The waiver is a separate legal document, and it is handled by our waiver service rather than by this page.
You have reached the end of the rules. The checkbox below is now unlocked.The legal part does not happen on this page, on purpose.
Raku carries more real risk than anything else we do, so the waiver lives with our waiver service instead of in something we built ourselves. They hold the signed record, they timestamp it, and they can produce it later. We are not going to pretend a checkbox on a pottery studio's web page is the same thing.
We check for a fresh waiver at every single raku workshop. Every time, no exceptions, no matter how many you have already done. Signing one today does not get you out of that check. Sign it now anyway, because knowing exactly what it says before you are standing next to an open kiln is the whole point.
Open the raku waiver Opens in a new tab. Come back to this tab when you are done and the last box will be ready.Save this card. Show it to an instructor at your next raku workshop and we will mark you off.
The one thing this card does not do
It is not your waiver and it never will be. We check for a fresh waiver at every single raku workshop, every time, from everybody.
How a raku workshop actually runs.
Read this once and the night stops being confusing. Everything below repeats for every kiln load, and we usually run two kilns so one is climbing while the other is being unloaded.
We decide what goes in, and where.
Pieces get loaded strategically, based on where each person will be standing when the lid comes off. The load is a floor plan as much as a kiln plan.
We practice the unload while the kiln is still open and cold.
Everyone rehearses with their tongs: how they will grab their piece, which way they will turn, exactly where they will walk. Tongs behave differently on different forms, and figuring that out now beats figuring it out while the thing is glowing. We do this every single load. It is the reason the real thing looks smooth.
Lid down, flame on, and now we wait.
An hour to an hour and a half to reach temperature, depending on how efficiently we got it loaded. The first batch always takes the longest because we are starting from cold.
While it climbs, you build your nest.
A kiln brick goes in the bottom of your can for the pottery to sit on. On top of that you build a raku nest: loose newspaper strips, with pine shavings and animal bedding sprinkled through it. Have this finished well before the kiln is ready.
And you fill your bag.
A paper lunch sack packed with pine shavings, animal bedding, newspaper strips, and whatever else you brought. Rip the sack down one corner so it dumps instantly instead of fighting you. Park it right next to your can, or underneath the removed lid if the wind is up.
Five minutes out, everyone gears up.
Goggles, apron, gloves, all the way on. If we have to wait on somebody, the kiln climbs past temperature and glazes suffer for it. Look around and help the person next to you remember.
We hold at temperature.
Within about a ten degree window, which is easier said than done with a hand valve controlling the gas. Holding there lets the glaze smooth out and settle onto the pot instead of arriving rough.
Everyone sounds off.
First wave, second wave, occasionally third. You say yours out loud, you get in position, and the kiln does not open until every person has confirmed they are ready and we all know where the action is about to go.
The lid comes off.
Everything inside is glowing. A wall of heat hits you in the face, and because everybody is still feet away it lands as a pleasant one. This is the part people remember for years.
Action, exactly as rehearsed.
Piece by piece, in the order we set. You lift yours out with the tongs, pivot to your can, and set it on the kiln brick down in the nest. It bursts into flame the instant it lands. Grab your bag and sprinkle the combustibles over it, or dump the whole thing at once if it is hot and hectic. That is fine. Then crumple the bag and throw that in too.
Let the flames peak, then seal it.
Wait for the fire to hit its high point and just start to settle, then slam the lid on. Stomp the edges down with your shoe so the whole thing seals. That trapped, starved atmosphere is where the real chemistry happens.
Optional: the raku burp.
Five or ten seconds after sealing, you can crack one side of the lid to let oxygen rush in. It catches, and a fireball escapes out the side of the can. Then the lid slams back down and gets stomped tight again.
There is extra danger here and it is worth saying plainly: do not be in the path of that side, and take your breath of fresh air before you go near the lid. Potters argue endlessly about whether the burp changes anything at all. Plenty of them swear it gives better results. Get an instructor's blessing before your first one.
Twenty minutes closed.
While the cans sit, we load the next batch, choreograph it, and get it firing. That overlap is why we get out of here sooner and burn less propane. The instructor or a trained helper does the loading. The kiln is still extremely hot and the air alone can burn you, so no reaching in.
Open your can. Gloves on.
Lid off, pot out with gloved hands, brush the soot and debris away, and set it on the ground. If you are hoping for the classic raku crackle, get down close and listen. It sounds like popcorn in the microwave: fast at first, then the tink-tink-tink starts spacing out. When the gaps get long, it is time for water. If crackle is not what you are after, go straight to the water.
Water, and this is the part to get right.
Wide mouths, open forms and bowls go straight into the water tubs. That final shock is what brings out the brighter colors and the good metallics.
Narrow necks and closed forms never go in hot. Water flows in through the neck, boils instantly, the steam gets trapped, and the piece bursts. Those get the pressurized sprayer instead. Spray the inside several times to bring the temperature down, and once it is down, go ahead and submerge it in the tub like everything else so it cools all the way through. Never grab a sprayed piece before it has been in the water.
None of this takes long. After a couple of minutes in the tub, tap it with a fingertip while it floats and you will know. Then it is yours.
Scrubbing, together.
Everything comes out of the water and waits until every piece from every firing is done. Then we all sit around the bins scrubbing and washing and talking about the whole night: the epic saves, the breaks, the fails, and the results that came out better than anybody had a right to expect. It is honestly one of the best parts.
Then we clean up. All of us.
Nobody leaves until it is all done. One thing that surprises people: we do not empty the ash from our own cans. We put the lids back on and leave them, and the next workshop's group cleans them out at the very start of their day. Ash holds embers longer than anyone expects, and this is how we make sure a can of it never ends up in a trash bag the same night.
What to bring depends on when we fire.
The safety rules do not change between a daytime and a nighttime workshop. Everything else about the experience does, and so does what you should throw in the car.
Hot sun, hot kiln.
You are standing outside near an open flame for hours, in Utah, usually in summer. Heat is the thing that gets people long before the kiln does.
- Sunscreen. Reapply. You will forget.
- A hat for the stretches when you are not geared up.
- Way more water than you think. Bring your own and keep drinking it.
- Misters. We provide them. Use them.
- Sunglasses for downtime. The goggles take over once the kiln is opening.
- Shade if you have a chair or canopy you like.
Dark, cold, unforgettable.
Nighttime raku runs late, often to two or three in the morning, and the temperature drops harder than anyone plans for. The payoff is that the glow is the only light out there.
- A headlamp. Hands free is the whole point. Bring one even if you think you will not need it.
- Warm layers. More than you think, in natural fibers.
- A camp chair for the long stretches between firings.
- A blanket.
- Snacks and caffeine. It is a long night.
- A cooler if you want your food and drinks cold.
Food, either way
Bring your own meal and drinks, or pitch in for a group order. Workshops run six to eight hours and nobody wants to be the person who did not eat.
The gear is ours. The pots are yours.
Every piece of required safety equipment is supplied and there is enough for everybody in any single opening of the kiln. It gets handed off to the next group when your firing is done.
Getting your pots ready
Everything you bring has to be bisque fired and glazed with raku specific glazes before the workshop, and it has to be made from a clay body that survives the thermal shock: B-Mix with Grog or Berlin Gray. The grog is what keeps it from cracking apart.
Bring up to four tall skinny pieces, or up to two wider ones, with a total combined width no greater than twenty eight inches.
Glaze your raku work during your regular class times, or take one extra day at the studio on top of your membership to get it done.
If somebody does get burned
There is a first aid and burn kit on site at every workshop, along with cold running water, which is the first thing you want on a burn. The nearest emergency room is a few miles away.
There are fire extinguishers, a hose, and buckets of water at the firing area, and specific people outside the firing are assigned to them before every opening. That is part of why the space behind the cans stays clear.
Say something the second it happens. Not after the firing, not once your pot is safe. Immediately.
Questions we get every time.
Can I bring someone to watch?
No. Raku workshops are participants only. Anyone standing near an open raku kiln needs to have heard the safety meeting and needs to be somebody the group can account for, and adding spectators to a fast moving choreographed firing works against both of those.
Participants who are not in a given firing are absolutely welcome to watch that firing, from at least four or five feet behind the furthest cans.
Can I take photos and video?
Yes, with one rule: not while you are part of the firing that is happening. If you are in the wave, your hands are on tongs and your eyes are on people, not a screen.
If you are not in that wave, film all you want from behind the cans. Just never walk and film at the same time. Somebody moving through the space watching a phone instead of the people is exactly the situation these rules exist to prevent.
What happens if the weather turns?
Extreme weather of any kind can cancel a workshop. If that happens we reschedule rather than refund. If the rescheduled date gets canceled too, the group votes between canceling with a refund or rescheduling again.
Do I still have to sign the waiver?
Yes, and this page will send you off to sign it rather than trying to do it here. The Raku Workshop Release of Claims lives with our waiver service, which holds the signed record properly.
We check for a fresh waiver at every single raku workshop. Every time, from everybody, no matter how many you have done and no matter what your certification card says.
Can my teenager come?
Raku workshops are eighteen and over, with one exception. A fourteen to seventeen year old may participate if a parent or legal guardian is participating in the same workshop and stays present the entire time. The parent signs for them and supervises them personally throughout. There is no dropping off and no watching from the car.
What if I have asthma or another breathing condition?
Bring a respirator, and be honest with yourself about it. Raku puts you near smoke and fumes repeatedly over several hours. A paper N95 helps with particles and does nothing for gases, so if fumes are your concern you want a cartridge respirator with organic vapor cartridges.
The same goes for heat sensitivity, heart conditions, pregnancy, balance issues, and anything else that heat, smoke or fast movement makes riskier. Talk to a doctor if you are unsure, and tell us before the workshop so we can plan around it.
What does this certification let me skip?
Right now, nothing. You still attend the full safety meeting at every workshop.
The plan is that eventually certified members can begin setting up while the safety portion runs, which gets everybody out of there earlier. Until we say otherwise, assume you are at the meeting like everyone else.
What happens to my answers?
They stay in your own browser while you work through the page. When you finish, your name, email, the date and time in Mountain time and basic device information get emailed to the studio as your completion record. There is no account, no mailing list signup and no third party form.
Worth saying plainly: that email is a record of a training being completed, and it is not a legal document. That is exactly why the waiver is not on this page. Anything with real legal weight goes through the waiver service, which timestamps it, stores it and can produce it later.
All of this sounds intense. It is mostly just fun.
We wrote every rule on this page out loud because that is the only way a group of people can move fast around an open kiln and all go home fine. Once you have done it, the choreography stops feeling like rules and starts feeling like a team that knows what it is doing.
Then the lid comes off and everything is glowing, and you understand why potters keep chasing this.