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Pinch Pottery
Take a hunk of clay that fits in your cupped hand and make it into a ball.Hold the ball in one hand while you push the thumb of your other hand into the middle of the ball, stopping about 1/2" from the bottom.
Now, rotate the ball while pushing outward with a hooked thumb inside the clay ball
and pushing toward the outside wall with your fingers on the outside for support.
Do not let the side of the pot become thinner than 1/4".
Work quickly with the clay so it does not dry out.
Avoid using water because it weakens the clay.
The clay can be pinched, squeezed and rubbed to the shape you want.
Smooth the finished piece inside and out with your fingers.
Designs can be scratched into the pot with a nail or sharp tool.
Indian designs or designs from nature are the most popular for this pottery.
Modeling
Be sure to follow the adhering suggestions above, if you are putting parts together.
The modeled figure should not be more than 3/4" thick in any one place unless it is hollowed out after it becomes leather hard.
Coil Construction
Some one just starting out in coil construction will find it easier to start with a pinch pottery base for their first coil article, then use a coil base for their other two piecesPinch Pottery Base
Make a pinch pottery with a wide open top.Flatten the bottom.
Build onto this pottery by adding coils.
Coil Building
The coil should be pretty even and around a 1/2" thick.
Set this coil a little to the outside of the coil beneath it if the pottery or figure is to become wider.
Set this coil a little to the inside of the coil beneath it if the shape is to become narrower.
Follow the joining instructions above to join coils to each other.
Always smooth the inside of a coil pottery.
The coils are usually left showing on the outside.
If the clay pottery becomes too soft to hold its shape, let it air dry for 30 to 60 minutes before adding more coils.
Coil Base
Roll out one even long coil that is 1/2" to 3/4" thick.Score the coil on both sides.
Spread both sides with slip and make a tight spiral the size you wish your base to be.
Gently smooth both top and bottom of the base until it is flat.
Now, build the rest of the pottery by adding coils as suggested previously.
If the pottery is to hold liquid or food, make sure there are no open cracks between coils.
Cracks may be filled with little worm like coils that are applied and smoothed into the larger coils.
Handles on pottery or lids should be made with 1/2" coils flattened at either end and join them securely to the pottery.
Slab Construction
Using a dowel rod or rolling pin, roll clay out into a flat slab.
Cut the desired shapes for sides and bottom of piece to be made.
For a cylindrical piece, work with slab right away so it will curve into shape without cracking.
Seal edges by joining.
For box like pieces, let slab air dry for a short time before joining edges, so the slabs will stand up on their own.
Make sure all edges between slab are joined well and the joints pinched or smoothed together inside and out so that no cracks show.
When slabs are leather hard, designs may be cut into the side of the piece.
Flat tiles made from 1/2" and 3/4" slabs to which designs have been added make very nice wall decorations or hot plates.
Carving, texturing, piercing and adding on are very effective design techniques for flat slabs.
Strip Construction
A method of making sculptured or large pieces from slabs of clay that are rolled out 1/4" thick and cut into long strips 3/4" to 1 1/4" wide.A flat base 1/2" thick is cut to the desired shape and strips of clay are built up on the slab base, kinda like coil construction.
The strips are joined to each other and all of the edges are smoothed even.
If the article is to become gradually wider or narrower, the edges of the strips of clay are cut on a slant to make them lay as desired.
Strips may slant outward and inward to build up a shape.
To keep finished piece even all the way around, make a template of the silhouette desired for the finished piece out of stiff cardboard.
Hold the template up to the sides of the clay piece every once in a while when adding strips.
Handles can easily be made from narrow 1/2" wide strips of clay joined onto the clay piece while it is still damp.
When strips of clay are used for sculpture, they must be air dried just enough to still be bendable but yet be firm enough to hold the shape they are bent into.
Slip Trailing
This is done by trailing a thin rope of a contrasting color of slip onto a damp piece of pottery, using a small hand syringe or a catsup bottle.Allow a slip trailed design to dry slowly.
Be sure to buy a glaze that will show up differently on the two colors of clay.
The glaze doesn't have to be transparent.
Piercing
This is the careful cutting of designs clear through the wall of a finished leather hard piece to create openings.Smooth the cut edges of the opening with a wire modeling tool or a damp sponge.
A sharp fettling knife works best for piercing.
Most pottery and ceramic supply shops carry fettling knives.
Add Ons
Joining designs cut from thin slabs of clay onto a finished damp piece.Joining Clay above will help you to join an add on.
The edge between the add on shape and the clay piece should be smoothed so no cracks show.
| Our duty is not to see through one another, but to see one another through. |
