Just Playing: Creating a Twisted Ridge Bowl

Sometimes in clay we have to let go of the expectation of making a piece to keep & fire, and just focus on the process. Recently in class I tried to figure out with student how to make a twisted ridge shape if we are making a bowl rather than a cylinder. The result is not amazing! But it's progress on figuring out the technique.
To see the full video become a paid subscriber to my Patreon page. Paid subscriptions start at $1.50/month. 🙂

 

Centering Larger Pieces

Often the limiting factor of how large you can throw is, how much can you center? I have a new (free!) video on my Patreon page demonstrating a method of centering for larger pieces that will help you get around that limitation! Check out the preview clip here, then head over to Patreon to watch the whole thing (again - this one is free &available to everyone!) If you find it helpful, you can subscribe (free, or starting at $1.50/month) while you are there. :)

Plate-O-Matic

I learned this super-easy slab technique at the Kansas City NCECA conference. The conference used to feature a space they called the Process Room, in which artists would do quick, half-hour demonstrations of a specific process. (Fun fact! I demonstrated oval stretched butter dishes in that space, at the same conference.) The Process Room was wildly popular; it required an overflow room, and many conference participants parked themselves in the front rows for two solid days. It has not been a feature of recent conferences. I don't know why but if I had to guess, I'd say it's because it was a boatload of work & we didn't get paid? Just a guess. 

But I digress.

In the video I use a repurposed hump mold made of fiberboard from GR Pottery Forms. They are intended for potters to drape slabs over top, then pop the clay off after it's leatherhard, and they do work well for that purpose, but I find the platters made that way to be quite static. The Plate-o-matic process allows for some post-forming manipulation, so the resulting piece can be more dynamic and fluid. If you prefer, you can make your own plate-o-matic dies out of 1/2" slabs of clay, cut to shape & bisqued.

I've got a new video for paid subscribers at my Patreon page, demonstrating this technique! Check it out at this link.  

Throwing a Coffee Cone

There's a new demo up on my Patreon page: throwing a coffee pour over cone! You can see a bit of it here, or subscribe as a Pottery Patron to see the whole thing! 

 

Mixing Up Trailing Slip: A How-To Video

 

There's a new post for Pottery patrons up at my Patreon page! It shows you how to mix up trailing slip using a smoothie blender, some porcelain, and a deflocculent. This here is a sneak peek; subscribe at the $5/month level to see the whole thing. Thanks in advance! 

Slab Built Coffee Pour Over Cone!

 

The necessary proportions for a slab built cone are the same as those for the  thrown version, but getting there obviously requires different steps & a different set of skills. I've got a new post up new post up for Patrons of my Patreon page detailing the process step-by-step. 

This one is for paid members, but there's lots of free content, too. Mosey over & check it outnull! 

Jauntifying a Jar

C is for Slab Building

I have some students who are exclusively slab builders, so I have been searching recently for new techniques to show them. Found this one described online, do I decided to give it a try.

It starts with a rolled slab, about 3/8s of an inch. I find a very common mistake among students is to roll their slabs too thin! In addition to being much harder to build with, an overly-thin slab results in a flimsy pot that chips easily and, to my mind, feels cheap. I can think of reasons why you would make a thinner pot - sometimes you can use daintiness in an aesthetic way, for special-occasion pots, in which the very fragility of the piece proclaims the specialness of the occasion, or makes clear that this is a decorative, not utilitarian, piece. But if you mean to use it regularly, give it a little substance!

But I digress. Where were we? Oh, yes, the slab. Once rolled and thoroughly compressed, cut two concentric circles. This will create a ring of clay, one circle being the outer diameter and the other the inner. The difference between the larger and the small of the two will be the height of the walls. The greater the difference, the harder this will be to build. To minimize any such difficulties, you want tgive this slab a little while to firm up. How long depends on the air conditions; 15 minutes is a good starting point but on the humid day I built mine that was not nearly enough. Building on a drywall board is helpful, too, as it allows the slab to dry from both directions.

Save the circle bit from the middle! It will become the bottom.

Now we're going to cut a wedge out of the ring, which will make a "C" shape. The wider the wedge, the more vertical the sides will be; a shallower bowl will be harder to build and may need to rest in or on a mold.

Like this one! This bowl is not especially shallow, but I lost
patience waiting for my slab to dry in our humidity. 

I found a wedge of at least a quarter of the ring made a good, useful shape.



Now we're going to bend the slab so that the edges overlap. There will be an opening in the middle.

Scoring & adding clay slurry (or magic water, or vinegar, or whatever your attachment preference) is going to be key in holding the seam together.

Now for the bottom. The circular bit that was cut out at the beginning is a little bit drier now, let's use that.

Optional, of course, but I like to put a texture on it.

This textured circle becomes the bottom - TWIST! - from the inside. Score, slip, etc, then:

There is, of course, a lot of smoothing, paddling, and other futzing - especially on the bottom! - to make it look nice. 

Karen Makes a Textured Vase

One of the many things I love about the clay community - our community - is the enormous generosity of my fellow potters. When we learn something, we don't hoard it; we are excited to share with others. Case in point: my student Karen Carpenter recently demonstrated for the class a technique she learned from another potter, to make an evenly textured surface on a curved vertical vase.

The roller she uses here is from MKM Tools.

Did you find this post valuable? Buy me a coffee!

^^LOL if anyone does this for *this* post I'm gonna have to buy Karen a coffee!

Wax Erosion

I've been demonstrating this technique in my classes this week: wax erosion. The short of it is, you apply wax in an image or pattern to bone-dry ware, then wipe with a sponge. Wherever the wax is will not erode, wherever the wax is not will. This creates a low-relief surface. You can do several layers - foreground, middle ground, background - for an illusion of depth.

Starts with a porcelain greenware cup

First layer of wax

I want to say a word about wax, here. I've used paraffin in the above picture, but the cup at the top of the post was made using water-based wax. The paraffin is harder and doesn't rub off as easily, but it has drawbacks too (besides fire danger) which we will see in a minute.

After rubbing with wet sponge

I wipe the surface of the pot with a wet sponge. The wax resists the eroding action of the water, while the clay around it gets worn away, leaving a raised pattern. Careful not to use too much water! If your greenware absorbs water too quickly it will crack.

More wax, on top of or around the first wax

More wiping...

Now, waaay over do it & wipe right through the wall of the pot!

You can skip that step if you don't feel like being a giant fuck-up. This, though, was the disadvantage of the paraffin wax; because you can wipe away a lot of clay before it starts to remove the paraffin, wiping all the way through the porcelain is possible. That would be a lot harder to do using water-based wax, because you either have to create a much shallower relief, or stop every minute or so, examine the pot, and re-apply wax where it has begun to erode.
Here are the two side by side! Water-based wax on the left, paraffin wax on the right.

 The wax - either kind - will of course just burn away in the bisque. I'm thinking celadon or clear glaze, or maybe just let the soda vapor do its thing.

Demo: Thrown Vase with Contrasting Clay Spirals

This was the demo I did for my Tuesday night class! A couple of notes about this:

1. Clay matters! In addition to their contrasting colors, you want to use clay bodies that fire to the same temp (thanks, Captain Obvious!) and have approximately the same shrinkage rates. 
2. No matter which two clay bodies you choose, let your vase dry slowly. 
3. It's not shown on the video but after the vase became leatherhard, I trimmed the rim a bit. Adding the clay makes the center imperfect, so it came up doing a bit of a hula. I don't always think of irregularity as a flaw; I've been known to exhort my students to "Embrace the wonk!" In this case though it just seemed distracting. 
4. The music quits about 2/3s of the way thru. Sorry about that! I could have spent more time tweaking it but decided the clay work was the important part. 

Enjoy!

Slab Built Pickle Tray

I have a little quirk. When I am making something, I like to imagine a specific use to which it might be put. I think this results in better pots - I'm sort of running a simulation in my head which helps me to anticipate needs for handles, or a wider rim, or other functional feature. But really, imagining the pots in use is just part of the fun.

I recently made a small serving tray that I decided would be perfect for pickles, or relishes - the kind of little dish that is often on the table for special-occasion dinners, or that you might bring to a potluck. It's made of a single slab, folded, with flattened coils added to the rim. Check it out:

Cut Paper Slip Resist

Another demo post I've had in the hopper for a while!

I like the look of a checkerboard pattern, but it can be a little too tight for my liking...and also (truth now!) a lot of work, to brush slip on each individual square. For a checkerboard pattern that's a little more dynamic - and also easier to achieve - I sometimes use squares of cut newspaper.

I cut several layers of newspaper at once. I don't usually measure but cut squares (or "almost" squares) about 2" each side.

This works best on leatherhard ware. Here's how it looks on a platter:

I keep a little dish of water beside me as I work. Dip each square in the water, then drag it gently against he edge of the bowl to wipe off the excess. Arrange the paper squares in rows, corner-to-corner:

 Go around with a fingertip and make sure there are no wrinkles or bulges at the edges that slip can get underneath, and that the squares are stuck down well.

Brush your slip over the surface. The brush strokes will show, at least a little, so consider that when you are applying your slip. I usually brush all in one direction.

 

When your slip has just begun to dry - just enough for the shine to fade - you can start removing the paper. The edges will be easy; for the inner squares I use a needle too to get underneath them to start peeling.

Since I started this blog post, like, a year ago, this piece is long since finished & gone. I glazed it with  ^10 shino & fired it in Portland Pottery's stoneware kiln. The slip fired to a blue-y black, the bare clay a yummy rust brown. Obviously a transparent or translucent glaze is a good choice here.

You could, of course, use any shape for your paper resist. With some care you can even do relatively delicate shapes. Torn paper makes for a nice dynamic line.

Garden Inspired Slip Inlay

This time of year inspiration is right outside my door. Blooming now: purple coneflowers! Their simple and easily recognizable shape makes them naturals for slip decoration.





To do this slip inlay, I first painted my image with food coloring.

Next I coated the interior of the bowl with water-based wax. Paraffin will work, as well, but it is a little more brittle, so harder to cut cleanly through.

Once the wax dried, I carved out the image with a sgraffito tool. Then I brushed on a white slip - underglaze will work for this as well. The slip sticks to the carved surface, but beads up on the waxed surface. I used a rib to remove the excess slip - one of the red ones from Mudtools works great (I call them Gummy ribs...like Gummy Bears, get it? ) because it's soft enough not to scrape any of the wax away.

The wax will burn away in the bisque firing (Thanks, Captain Obvious!) I'll choose a transparent or translucent glaze t show my slip work to best advantage. I'm leaning towards a shino, but I could see this in Amber Celadon...

Upside Down Plates

Potters, in my experience, are generous folks. One of the joys of teaching in a communal studio like Portland Pottery is learning from my fellow potters. It's a regular even to see something wonderful and ask the maker to share it.

Last week I learned from Brian Buckland how to make these upside-down plates, with undulating lines from a twisty cut-off wire. Brian learned it from Tyler Gulden, and so on and so on, it's turtles all the way down.

It's also a joy to be the one sharing!

Here are the steps, pictorally:

Center a three pound hump low & wide, as if you were throwing a regular plate

Throw a foot ring

With a wooden rib, make a deep undercut - about a half-inch 

Cut of plate from the bat with a twisty wire, but leave it on the bat. You can cut straight or not, depending on the pattern you want. 

Place a second bat on the foot ring. Line up the pin holes to get the plate as close to the center of the second bat as you can. 

Flip the plate between the two bats, like a clay sandwich

I couldn't get a good picture of the next bit, but you have to reach between the bats and get your fingertips (gently!) into the undercut, and peel the plate off the first bat. Be very careful , as it's easy to mess up the rim. This bit takes some patience, and some practice.

Even if you are very careful, it will look like crap when it first comes off the bat. Don't worry! It's supposed to.

See? Looks like crap. 

It should be pretty close to center, because you lined up the two bats pretty well, but make whatever adjustments necessary to get it as close as you can now that it's unstuck. Now you are going to snap the bat back on the wheel, and with a sponge, persuade the wall to come up until it is shaped like a plate or shallow bowl:

Optionally, you can trim out some of the center. This is probably a good idea so you can compress the center - I am a little worried that the ones I didn't trim out will crack.

If you are really, really good, your plate might be done! Mine all needed trimming underneath after they'd dried to leatherhard.

Drive-by Post: A Demo in 5 Pics

Just wanted to share something fun I have been demonstrating in my classes this week: an underglaze decorating technique involving carving through a layer of wax to create an image and low relief texture at the same time.

It starts with bonedry greenware. Bone dry is better than late leather hard only because the water-based wax resist dries faster. I brush on a layer of wax; water-based wax resist is better than paraffin because it is less brittle, but either one will work. (Optionally, you could paint your intended design on the greenware with food coloring first, if you don't want to freehand it.) It needs to dry completely, which will take a little longer on greenware than it does on bisqueware. The rest goes like this:

Carve thru wax and into the clay with a sgraffito tool

Brush on underglaze

Second layer...

Wipe excess off with sponge

Do it some more...

This piece will get some more carving on the lid, then I will re-cover it with wax, allow it to dry, and then repeat the process with a different color of underglaze; I'm thinking white. It will be bisqued, which will burn away the wax, and then either glazed with a transparent stoneware glaze - maybe celadon - or I might just let the soda vapor do its thing.

NCECA Demo, at last on YouTube!

So, hey, remember when I went to NCECA in Kansas City to demonstrate thrown and altered butter dishes? The video of that demo is finally available!
Well. Sort of. Turns out you have to purchase the Process Room videos. You can catch a bit of my demo in the teaser, though; enough to get a sense of how the tray to the butter dish is stretched. I'm tempted to buy the video - not for my demo OBVS but because it looks like the others were pretty fab, which I was too nervous to notice at the time.
Anyway, check it out. My bit starts about 11 seconds in.

  You can get a copy here, if you're interested.

Update: AAAARGH for some reason the embedded video keeps vanishing. If it's not appearing, you can see in here on Youtube. 

Tutorial: Slab with Contrasting Clay Pattern

I had occasion recently to spend some time at the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. If you ever get a chance to do a residency at Watershed, take it; it's a magical place. I was running a soda firing workshop - their soda kiln - not to mention their glazing area! - is much larger than mine at home, so works better for group firings.

Firing, as you may know, is a lot of waiting around, punctuated by fifteen seconds work every so once in a while. In the meantime, there's lots to explore at Watershed: woodland paths, the sculptural contributions of previous residents, sheep and pigs to coo at. (Not me. Well, I like the sheep. Pigs creep me out. I admit it's irrational, but I lived in Iowa, and read too many stories of pet pigs killing their incapacitated owners. Hey, some people don't like clowns! With me it's pigs.

But I digress.)

In the main house, there's a small sales area. While checking that out, I saw a really wonderful butterdish The construction was just folded slab but they were made of unglazed porcelain with an inlaid contrasting pattern. The inside was just the white of the clay. I couldn't tell who made it, or I'd happily credit the artist here. I set out to see if I could duplicate the clay-inlay technique.

I didn't want to use porcelain, because I didn't want the extra steps of (purchasing and) adding in mason stain, or screwing around with babying the piece along to keep the porcelain from warping and cracking. I used instead two contrasting stoneware bodies. If you attempt this, the claybodies will need to fire to the same temperature (thanks, Captain Obvious) and have approximately the same shrinkage rate. the claybodies I used are Laguna's 910 (brown) & 510(white), both ^10 bodies with shrinkage of about 14%.

I started with a thick slab. It needs to be thick to begin with because I will need to roll the holy heck out of it in the next steps. Then I set it aside while I made the pieces to inlay.

The inlay pattern is create by a millefiore technique. If you've ever played around with Sculpey, you may have used it to make buttons or beads. I rolled out two thin strips, one of white clay and one of brown. I spread water (not slurry) on the white one and place the brown on top of it, then rolled the rolling pin over the two together.

Starting on a long edge, I rolled the two like a jelly roll. You can roll from the short edge also, which is easier but gives you a more irregular spiral pattern on the finished piece. I roll the coil a little thinner to compress the two together, then...

Slice! I use a flexible metal rib to do this; the edge is thinner and therefore distorts the design less.There may be an air pocket in the spiral - this is no problem.

Now I brush some water on the thick slab and stick the slices on.

I move the slab + slices onto a piece of plastic, the lay another on top of that. You can roll harder this way, without the slab sticking to the rolling pin. I am wishing right now I had one of those heavy maple rolling pins, which are just great as objects but also better tools than puny kitchen rolling pins.

Keep rolling, flipping over occasionally.

Keep rolling, until there are no visible seams between the original slab and the added slices.

Peel off the plastic, and give it a couple of rolls with the pin, to compress the surface and remove the plastic texture.

Now we've got a slab to build with. I let it breathe for a while to firm up, then just made a simple cylinder with a folded bottom, but you could make a platter or a butter dish or anything that you could make with a plain slab. Have fun, and if you try this send me photos!

I'll be building a mug with this slab, so I cut it to an oblong rectangle 5" wide by 13" long. Part 2, coming up!

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