In July 2003, I had the pleasure of going to the beautiful city of Utrecht in Holland to give a throwing and raku firing demonstration. The invitation came from Gráinne Bagnall. Gráinne opened her Irish Design Winkel on St Patrick's day.
It is situated in the heart of old Utrecht, along one of the many beautiful canals that tourists and locals use to travel the length and breath of the city. The workshop consisted of a throwing demonstration and about six firings of my flat pack raku kiln.

I would like to thank Marjolein and Theo, who gave us the use of their garden to carry out the workshop. They couldn't have been more helpful. Thank you for your kindness and friendship.

Me outside Gráinnes shop.

The barge pulls up to the canal side to take the party to the demo a short distance away.

This view shows the shop front on street leve, the canal entrance below and waiting barge.

Introducing the process to some of the people who came along.

Beginning the demo.

Beginning to open the clay.

The finished pot.

While the throwing demo proceeds, the portable raku kiln has fired to temparature, and is now ready to open. In the photo are my son Aaron and Theo. Theo had never worked in ceramics before but his help was invaluable on the day. Thanks Theo.

The pottery has been taken from the
kiln at 1000* C and placed into a bin
containing coco chippings.

Theo pours some coco chippings over the pottery to help in the reduction process.

Lucky we decided to do
this in the suburbs of Utrecht.
The amount os heavy smoke
produced by the small coco
shells created enormous
amounts of thick smoke.
Normally I would use wood
chippings, but coco was all I could get.

Some of the party were willing to have a go at throwing. Here, Frances is the first person to try her throwing skills.

Thank you to Grainne and Herbert for making our stay with you so enjoyable.

e-mail------ leonlynch@eircom.net