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The Art of Fire Fine Art Raku Porcelain Horses
Exclusively From The Lakeshore Collection, Ltd.
Lakeshore Collection fine bisque porcelain “Art of Fire” horses are created by the 16th century Japanese art form of “Raku”, named after Raku Chojiro, who is credited with creating this gorgeous and mysterious, yet brutal & demanding technique, by artist George Robert Boothe of St. Louis, a master ceramic artist with almost 30 years of experience.
True to the traditional art of Raku, three layers of special, hand-mixed glaze are hand applied to each piece, which are then individually kiln-fired to an inferno-like temperature of almost 2000 degrees! When the molten glaze glows orange hot, it’s taken out of the kiln & put immediately in a special metal reduction chamber filled with paper, small pieces of wood or twigs, leaves, pine needles, sawdust, straw, or other natural combustibles, which ignite.
The piece is engulfed in shooting flames & smoke---the art of FIRE!
Each resulting fine art piece which survives the ordeal is as unique, individual, and distinctive as a fingerprint---and alive with kaleidoscope mirror colors (you can see your eyes & lips reflected just like on a Christmas tree ornament!), iridescence, metallic patinas, jewel tones, and colors that shift & change depending on the light and angle when you look at it.
And all the colors & patterns are made entirely by the way the smoke & fire hits them—no two can ever be alike! Factors like temperature, humidity, and paper vs. pine needles can cause different colors to tend to come up, but you never know what you’re going to come out with, if anything---it’s really all up to the fire & smoke!
The look isn’t at all like color-shift paint; it’s more fluid & deep, with more depth and shade changes. It reminds some of a drop of oil swirling on water, but with much more color depth & range. In a way, they almost look alive, and that’s why authentic Raku has been prized and collected for 500 years!
Collectors have said they look like different horses every time they look at them, and there’s always some other little color or effect they’d never seen before. Other collectors thought we sent them the wrong horse until they got them out of the box & saw the gorgeous colors come up! But most enjoyed are the messages we get saying it’s the most beautiful horse they ever saw!
Each also bears the hallmark & inimitable texture of fine traditional Raku---each swirl and rivulet forever bearing silent testament to its trial by fire. The texture itself from burning on the molten glaze is prized because it’s proof it’s the real thing—no plastic or resin could survive the fire.
But even with our fine bisque porcelain, the strongest & most durable of all fine art ceramics, only about half survive being made! For starters, setting anything on fire tends not to be good for it. Then hot piece is dunked in water to set the color, and the shock of the temperature change can cause them to crack. If it doesn’t catch fire within a few seconds, no colors at all will form & it just looks like a horse dunked in brown gravy.
But most dramatically, if molten glaze or ash blocks the tiny expansion hole under their belly, with all the temperature changes pressure inside cannot equalize and they can explode so much force I’ve seen hunks blown out of the inside of the thick kiln walls!
The website selection at www.lakeshorecollection.com changes only as new pieces are completed and become available, but the pictures cannot do justice to these uniquely beautiful horses.
Each horse is individually titled and documented, and comes with hand-signed authenticity suitable for framing. Like all Lakeshore Collection horses, they are gift-boxed with custom Styrofoam inserts for safe shipping to their new home.
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