The name ‘naked raku’ describes an unglazed pot that is the result of a long series of processes.

After being thrown, smoothed, trimmed and dried, the pot is given 2 coats of a fine clay slip called terra siglatta. Once this layer is dry, the pot is polished to give it the silky feel of the finished piece. After the first firing, all the sections that are going to be solid black have to be masked off with tape. Then one or several layers of slip (which won’t melt) are applied, followed by one or two coats of glaze (which could melt)

Once in the raku kiln, timing is very important as the glaze has to be heated just to the point where is almost completely melts. If it melts, it will penetrate the slip layer and fuse to the pot. Once the point is reached, the pots are  taken out and put into burning materials, and covered with a metal tin. At this point, the smoke penetrates through the cracks in the slip and unglazed areas.

After sitting under the tins for a while, they are taken out...if you are lucky, the slip/glaze layer just falls away like an eggshell. If not, you can be scrubbing for quite a while to get to the surface. Regardless, the surface has to be gone over with a plastic rib to remove all the fine bits of slip that are always left. After drying, the pots are waxed with beeswax and mineral spirits. 

All this just to be naked!

Naked raku pots, like regular raku, are not watertight and will fade in direct sunlight