Raku Boo-Boo?

When starting a new endeavor it's always helpful if you start at the bottom and work your way up. You have to crawl before you can walk I try and tell myself, but clearly I don't listen to myself (I'm a bit boring anyway) so whilst playing with polymer clay and reading books and trawling the net, there are so many tempting techniques to try that I thought I'd give the faux raku technique a bit of a burl. Raku is a fairly involved form of pottery requiring kilns and different ways of getting a lovely metallic sheen on it.
Not bad for a first go really......really? I made the mistake of starting off with white clay, well I already had these pieces made and baked so I thought why not, what have I got to lose, only some clay and a bit of time. Black clay would have worked so much better plus it would have been a bit quicker because I wouldn't have had to put so many coats of Micaceous Iron Oxide on them, but anyway I'll know for next time.

So after several coats of MIO and waiting in between for them to dry, could have used my heat gun to speed the process up but I'm in the living room and it's noisy and the world cup is on and I think I would have gotten nasty looks from DH.
Then using Golden's Iridescent Bronze I lightly stippled over them with a stencil brush.
Then using my finger I lightly dabbed Jo Sonja's Iridescent paints in turquoise for some and blue for the others.
Not too shabby for a first attempt, the round shapes are quite organic (read wonky) but I think that adds to their hand made charm.
So now I've tried this technique I'm off.......to Infinity and Beyond.......to try some other things. Who said you have to start at the bottom!!!!!