Must there be clouds of smoke when doing raku?
Raku doesn’t require smoke at all. There are two aspects of the process that have the potential for creating smoke. If you are using a fuel fired kiln (as opposed to an electric kiln) then it is likely that there will be at least some smoke generated during the firing. If you are doing post firing reduction, there will be smoke created then as well. The amount of smoke is determined by the efficiency of your reduction technique, the material you are using, and the amount of material you are using. If you are reducing in a container, the tighter the lid fits, the less smoke will exit the container. There are other techniques of reduction that create less smoke than others. Of course if you are not doing post firing reduction and simply cooling your ware when it comes from the kiln, then there is no smoke created.
