Handbuilding Weeks 5 & 6

Yes, yes I got behind! But at the end there is a bonus of a workshop I did of inlaid slip into Terra Cotta Pavers

 

Handbuilding Week 5 

Darting  vessels and adding clay into cuts

Okay so I’m really hooked on the brayer as a method of sealing the clay onto itself.  Darting is where you cut a slit or a leaf shape or a triangle out of the piece and close up the gap to change the shape of your pot.

Darted Tall Pitcher

I made a basethe-base-b4-darting

and darted it at the bottom. Where I wanted it wider, I slit it, spread it apart and added a triangle of clay. any time I attached clay to clay, I thinned it so the walls would basically be the same thickness all round.

Here it is, awaiting a triangle of clay to be added.base-after-darting-bottom-and-opening-top

In retrospect, I wouldn’t have darted it down there. I think it made it a lot weaker. Where I wanted it narrower, I cut slits and folded them overlapping. After I got the base attached, I darted in the top part and then added several more tiers. You can see on the right where I’ve made a slice and will thin that and then fold it in to overlap and make the opening narrower.

adding-the-next-tier

I just kept adding wide strips of  slightly hardened slabs and finally added a handle. The piece turned out quite tall. 

Then I scored and wet it a bit. To press it together, I used a brayer which gave me a great surface quality.

I supported on the inside and went over the area-to-be-joined with a brayer; pressing it down and bonding it together.

I also used the brayer at a slight angle on either side of the handle.

and Voila! a huge piece!

finished-tall-piece

Darted Bowl

This is a great and simple project. I took a circle and made 4 cutscircle-with-4-cuts

I brayer-ed the edges to make them thinner so they are less likely to have the strength to warp away from the joint and also to have a consistent thinness throughout the bowl.brayer-ing-edges-2b-thin

Then I fold them up and overlapped them.

folded-bowl

Added matching feet and there I have a nice serving bowl. The white mark is the slip that I put my signature on.

the feet have the same casual look and construction to match.
the feet have the same casual look and construction to match.

 

 

 

 

HANDBUILDING WEEK 6

Faceting, slip transfer, sgraffitto

 

Faceting a vertical vessel

So, you can get springs in all shapes and sizes from, say,  the back of a spiral notebook to the inside of a ball-point pen. It’s a good idea to stretch these out a bit as too tight a coil has too high a profile so the clay gets caught in the narrow spaces between the coils in stead of cutting cleanly through.stretched-spring-wire-springabove is (from bottom to top) a spring that has not been stretched at all, a regular wire (you can also use a cheese cutter )for flat cuts and that same type spring all stretched out and ready to use.

Start by making a very basic vessel. I just shoved the end of this dowel rolling pin into a rectangle- it could be a round shape.beginning-vessel-to-be-faceted

After I opened it a bit,rolling-a-little-to-open-the-vessel

I took the stretched out fine spring that someone got at a resource center and cut in various ways down the thick walls.

beginning-the-faceting-cutAt one point I cut all the way through but I just reattached that and re-cut it shallower.

 

You can change directions with the wire or let one end curve ‘round to make a dynamic pattern.

facetingpulling-off-the-cut-off-piecethe-result-of-faceting-with-a-springlg-piece-faceted-all-the-way-round

I also made little glaze test pots out of the pieces I sliced off.pieces-made-from-cut-off-pieces

Mary Ellen had a really good time with the wire.mary-ellen-facetingmes-result

 

Student Work

Roya is working on a piece that looks pretty fabulous 

royas-bowl-with-some-slip-applied

plus look at how great her slip painting turned out- this is blues and greens under Celadon.royas-lovely-painterly-dish

Leah is making an old man jug that has a great expression!leahs-pitcher-in-progressleahs-grandpa-pitcher-faceShe toned down the paps later on.

 

Transferred Slip Design

Another thing we tried this week was transferring slip.

I threw out a slab of stoneware and then covered it with white slip.

Then, using black slip, I painted a tree on a piece of newspaper and then pressed it onto the slab.slip-transfer-just-b4rubbing-it-onpulling-off-the-newspaper Not all the slip stuck but that gave it a cool texture and look.

I plan to build a house like box with this slab. Remember my shadows of trees on buildings entry? (here)

For my last demo, I gave a quick lesson on sgraffitto since it is the main kind of work I do. I painted the surface with slip, drew an image on it and carved away all the negative space. You can see photos of this on my “How to make a Picture Vase” entry.

 

After class I taught a Terra Cotta Pavers workshop. They came out so great that I took pictures and thought I’d add that technique to this entry.

Inlaid colored clay

Start with two colors of clay; in this case I wanted to inlay high fire white into Terra cotta. I had students draw life size pictures and then lay thin coils of the white clay over their drawings. This even worked exceptionally well for a 4 year old & mom team.* note if you do words, lay them out in mirror writing or they will be backwards!

After you have your pattern laid out,face-beforeput a fairly thick pad of clay over the coils. These were extra thick as they are meant to be garden pavers (stepping stone type things). Once they are in place, pound the back evenly with your fist or the flat of your hand. You may also use a rolling pin.

Then just flip them over!inlaid-face-afterIt’s hard to make a bad one!

inlaid-fish-bonesinlaid-ferns

 

Lastly, I have added “after” photos to several entries as I’ve gotten the pieces back from the glaze kiln. Check out how Inlaid Slip turned out!

Week 1 Handbuilding

 

 

Drop plates and the “Eric Jensen Method” of throwing slabs.

 

For week 1 of Handbuilding, I demonstrated :

Throwing a slab,

Making a drop plate

The Eric Jenson method of putting slip on a slab

Double pinch pot method (please see class 1 of my First Time potter blog)

Making a slab into a cylinder

Putting feet on a slump- molded form

 

BIG thanks to Leah for taking these pictures! 

 

Throwing a slab is not as easy as it looks but just takes a little practice.

Wedge your clay in a spiral wedge

spiral wedging

and then flatten it to about an inch and a half.

last-roll-10How the pre-thrown piece of clay should basically look

Then throw it down on the table but as you throw it, try to drag the back edge so it catches on the canvas and stretches as it tried to slide across the surface.

just before I throw it down on the table

Pick up the piece from a different side so the piece is rotated and throw it again. Take care not to hit the leading edge of the slab down first or it will just wrinkle up.rotating the piece

continue doing this until your slab is the desired thickness. I don’t recommend making the clay too thin or it will be too weak to build with.

last-roll-03Then smooth the surface and eliminate the cracks and canvas texture by gently “wiping” the surface with a rib.

Using a soft red rib to smooth the surface

 

Eric Jensen did a demonstration of his technique years ago at the old Lill Street when he still had a studio there.

Prepare the clay as above but stop when it is at the inch and a half stage.

At this point apply slipapplying white slip

and then gently apply a single thickness of newspaper to it to absorb the moisture of the slip. We are trying to “dry out” the slip so that it is less plastic than the clay body underneath it.

last-roll-22

When you see the moisture has soaked the newspaper sheet, careful peel it off and apply a new one. Some slip may come away stuck to the paper.

Keep applying paper until your slip is no longer shiny and you can touch it without it adhering to your finger.

the dried slip on the clay before the slab is thrown

 

You may then add a second color slip or make lines in the slip.

adding a second color of slip

 

Then throw it out as you would a regular slab 

mid throw-stretching it out right side up

EXCEPT

you can not flip it over. you must keep the slip side up.

here is the final result:

ready to be made into a plate

the final product with celadon glaze

here is another series:Pulling off the first piece of newspaper- note how some slip is stuck to itwhite slip dripped on toplines are cut through the slip layer using a small spiked wheelthe slab is thrown out

the final result sitting in a junk store oval moldclose up 

close upnote how the slip has cracked. This is because when we dried it, it became less plastic. When we stretched the slab it cracked rather than stretching.

Once it is stretched out, you get a wonderful distressed surface that you can leave plain or add further decoration to.

final result-with-josh green over (it sagged)

 

 

These are all drop plates.

examples of drop plates

Basically you put a slab of clay over or into a drop mold–It is easiest to transfer the slab by carrying it on a piece of newspaper.

carrying the slab on a piece of newspaper

If your mold is nonporous, the clay will stick to it if you don’t put newspaper or plastic over the mold

a mold prepared with newspaper

 — and then drop the mold so the clay sinks down into it without you having to press it in. If you must press it in, use the softest, largest part of your hand- the heel of your hand.

gently pushing the clay down into the mold

So many things can be used as drop plate molds. Trays from the junk store, Styrofoam with a hold cut in it- after I put the clay on, I cut out the leaf shape,

cutting a leaf shape on a simple styrofoam mold

or even make your own mold with coils of clay on a board as I did for this piece. 

coils are set onto a round board to make a mold.the piece sitting on newspaper on the mold made with coils of clay

 

 

This is one of my student’s pieces – I think it looks great!

M.E.'s piece with Red Iron slip under some white