Raku

I spent all day at the "Harvest festival" of Öland at a friends place on the north part of the island. Him and his wife owns an old station house there from the days when Öland had a railroad covering the island. Now, only a few of the station houses are left.

The festival is annual and keeps growing and changing every year while new exhibitioners pop up selling vegetables, jam, juices and so on but also shows artwork produced by themselves or others, in an art-gallery form. My friends had several things going, an art path in their huge garden, with masses of sculptures put on trees, under bushes or strung between trees, all lit individually by solar spotlights. 

There were music performances, poetry, photos, coffee and food -and "Raku" pottery My friends has built their own firewood-heated Raku oven and the whole process is rather spectacular. They used pre-prepared and glazed pottery and fired the oven to about a thousand degrees. After burning it, the pottery is then taken out of the oven and immediately put in saw dust or straw, that reduces the air and produce unforeseen patterns and colouring of the glazes.

The festival goes on for four day but my friends only took part in the Friday and Saturday. Maybe as many as three hundred people found their way to the station to enjoy what was on offer. I gave a concert today, playing six Beatles tunes and gave some background info about the songs. Everyone was very tired this evening but very pleased by the event.