The raku process is one that was developed in Japan hundreds of years ago, with the firing of yix xing tea bowls for tea ceremonies. Today, the process has been westernized to the raku process in which most people are familiar.
For the work that I make, I use a 30 gallon metal trash can lined with fiber blanket as my kiln. With a vent/peep hole cut out of the top and another hole at the base for the burner. Pieces are loaded into the kiln that have been glazed specifically for the process. The termperature is then ramped up incrementally to a predetermined range and pieces are pulled from the kiln using tongs and placed into different sized metal containers, filled with combustible materials, depending on the size of the piece. The combustible materials ignite and the fire is then smothered with the container lid. The piece is either then uncovered and upon observing the color changes splashed and then dunked into water which sets the colors or allowed to cool in the container undisturbed.