Village Heights was the recipient of a beautiful hand-made ceramic piece given to the community by Inga and Ned.

It is a one of a kind piece purchased at the arts festival in 2001 and is displayed in our community dining room.

The piece features an Asian-inspired form using crackle glaze in combination with a raku firing technique. With raku the piece is quickly removed from the kiln as a red hot piece and is immediately immersed in sawdust, leaves or other materials to completely surround it. Doing so cuts off the oxygen that was part of the firing process and in so doing, begins to create a smoky surface on the unglazed clay. The piece undergoes a tremendous shock and not all pieces survive. The resulting surface is unpredictable which adds to the mystery of the piece. It’s an exciting process with an unknown result. The photos show both the raku affected gray areas as well as the use of a crackle glaze.