Home / Beads / Our Beads / Raku Fired Clay Beads

The Beaded Giraffe is proud to add raku fired beads to our inventory, and pleased to introduce our customers to Dimensions Art raku beads, one-of-a-kind handcrafted beads from the studio of Jean and Dana Higginbotham, a mother-and-daughter team from Virginia Beach who have been producing their wonderful raku beads together for more than 18 years.

These beads are hand made from stoneware clay. After they dry, they are glazed by hand, allowed to dry again and then are trimmed around the edges of the holes for rough spots. They are put on high temp. wires "shish-ka-bob style" to be fired in kilns. Brought up to about 1800 degrees, the pieces are then removed from the kiln while the glazes are still molten hot. They go from the kiln into a pot filled with newspaper, which bursts into flame. The lid is closed and the beads steep in the smoke, ash and carbon. Once cooled, they are washed and soaked to get rid of the smoky smell. This raku process gives the beads an ancient look which looks great with metal, silk, leather and any earthy fabric!

Raku is considered the traditional method for creating bowls from earthenware for the Japanese tea ceremony. Over the years, raku techniques have been adopted and modified by contemporary potters worldwide.

For photos of the Dimensions raku process, check out the slideshow below. Click on any pictures for a larger version.