Pot construction and critique

[MattA]

I made my first pot under 2mths ago and it has since become a bit of an obsession, one to even rival my love of trees. As I have admitted on many occasions I love BIG trees, but I have an even equal love of mame. I have mainly been focusing on small pots to get used to the medium, with a few larger pots in construction. I thought I would share one of my two favorite methods for making pots and share some of the unfired pieces for critique of there shape & form.

The main method I use is carving of leather hard blocks. Start by wedging out a piece of clay working it into a basic size and form that you want the pot to be when finished. In the case of a pot that you are going to carve the inside & outside you dont have to worry about being too precise at this stage.

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Set the clay aside on boards or newspaper & covered in plastic similar to that the clay bags are made from. Allow the blocks to harden a day or several depending on the size. Once it feels firm to touch without deforming you cut the block down to the shape of the final pot.

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I got a bit carried away & forgot to take a pic before I started digging out, I use a butter knife, small pen knife & flat blade to do all my carving. Dig out a basic core allowing for refinement, even tho the outside of the block is hard, the middle remains soft. Once you are close to final size set the block aside again to harden further, for small pots usually the next day is long enough.

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Now is the fun part, carving borders rims and feet. Starting with a block of about 6cm high I now have a pot that is about 4.5x 4.5cm and it will shrink little in the firing.

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This set of 4 was carved from a single block 7x4x4cm. First the block was cut in half along its length and the larger pot carved from one half, the other was split into 3 roughly equal sized blocks, of which one is further reduced in height. Main pot 6.3x3.5x2cm, left to right 3.2x2x1.4cm, 3.2x2.1x1cm, 3.2x1.9x1.4 unfired. I think shrinkage is about +/-10%.

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And a few pieces that i hope survive firing. I am mainly going to be just using oxide washes in varying strengths & application methods in this firing, with a kiln load of pots in this size range I should get more than a few tests done, maybe one or 2 might be half decent.

Matt

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[Jamie]

gday matt

looking good, you have got me curious now, the marks in the clay from the carving, are they done on purpose or just part of the carving? im thinking it was intentional to give the pot a texture. i think thats the case as some of your others are smooth, is there a way of smoothing them off before firing if you want a flat finish?

just out of curiousity, how much is a slab of clay?

jamie

[pjkatich]

Nice photo-tutorial, Matt.

The green-ware pieces look good. However, the drainage holes look to be a bit small to me.

What type of clay body are you using? It appears like it contains a great deal of grog.

Have you experienced any problems with warping during the drying process?

I look forward to seeing these pots after they have been glaze fired.

Cheers,
Paul

[MattA]

gday matt

looking good, you have got me curious now, the marks in the clay from the carving, are they done on purpose or just part of the carving? im thinking it was intentional to give the pot a texture. i think thats the case as some of your others are smooth, is there a way of smoothing them off before firing if you want a flat finish?

just out of curiousity, how much is a slab of clay?

jamie

Hey Jamie,

The smooth finished ones are shaped & smoothed before leather hard stage, they are buffed again when leather hard & then touched up again after the insides are carved. Those with a surface texture is as a result of carving the outsides, yes I could smooth them out at this stage but have been left rough to see how it effects on the finished product. You can sand them when dry tho with groggy clays like this they end up even more textured! Better to buff smooth while leather hard.

Not sure how much the clay was a bag but you get a hell of a lot of small pots from it.

Nice photo-tutorial, Matt.

The green-ware pieces look good. However, the drainage holes look to be a bit small to me.

What type of clay body are you using? It appears like it contains a great deal of grog.

Have you experienced any problems with warping during the drying process?

I look forward to seeing these pots after they have been glaze fired.

Cheers,
Paul

Hey Paul,

Thanks for your feedback, the drainage holes on some could be a little bigger tho on most are about as big as space will allow. I will take it into account & improve on them in future pots.

The majority of what I have been making is in a very groggy clay, it places certain constraints on the construction especially getting the finish just right. I have spent ages buffing some pieces only to have a stray grain come loose & put a big scratch into the finished surface, then its start all over again.

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I love the effect of this particular groggy clay when fired, I have some new clay samples on there way that are mainly all groggy clays and cant wait to get building and firing. I am trying to find some good clays for unglazed pots that I dont have to resort to staining with oxide washes or the like.

Since I have started carving the pots from blocks I have had no issue's with warping, or splitting at the joins. I am curious how some of them will fire up tho given there size & minimal wall thickness's. Is there a point reached when a piece of clay is too thin to support its own mass when fired?

Back to the pots... will take me a long time to get a kiln load built at these sizes. Will share the results when fired.

Matt

[Loretta]

Hi Matt...This post couldn't have better timed as I have just decided to buy a slab of clay to work on at home. I love your method of carving as I hadn't thought of doing it that way. Just shows, the sky's the limit when you use your imagination!!! I think what I've been using at class is called red Buff, it looks the same as yours, who knows!! I go back on Friday for next class, that's when I'll get my slab. Would appreciate if you could keep this thread going with your future work as well as it's a great way of sharing ideas, successes and failures.
cheers Loretta

[MattA]

Hey Loretta,

Thanks for your reply. I fully intend to continue sharing my journey with clay and have more pics this morning for you. I would suggest buying a bag of each type that looks appealing and trying a bit from each. Feeneys clays is at Ipswich & has some nice clays I am looking forward to trying soon.

I got 5 different types from Penny to experiment with, one earthenware which was a bit disappointing and the rest stoneware clays as I will fire to the same 1280deg that Penny does. I intend to do the whole lot as a single fired attempt with mainly the small pots and a few bigger pieces. They each have a different feel & workability factor, plus they all fire to a different finished colour.

I really like traditional unglazed pots, especially antique chinese pots which are that little less perfect, showing the hands that built them in every ripple of there skin. With the different clays I got I have approached each bag differently. This bag was taken out & slabbed into the shape of the timber stand it sits on, another stand on top & jump up & down until it gets to size. You need to stop & press the excess into the corver to build them out as you go along. With the basic slab formed it was wrapped and left to harden for several days. A few small trimmings were made along the way to get me started using this clay for small pots.

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I have unwrapped it & trimmed the sides, here the end is untrimmed, the side facing is trimmed. The second phto is from the opposite end that has had both edges cut. I did this using a large 10cm paint scraper.

[MattA]

*hit submit instead of inline*

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Then I wet the whole slab down generously & rubbed the edges into shape, by following a circular motion around the pot in both directions it reduces any warping and gives a nice soft flow to the sides, corners and top edge, not really getting rid of any bumps or dips but making them flow together seamlessly.

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The inside is treated similarly tho a little less precisely as further carving will be done later. The slab has been sat in the shade & out of the wind to harden a little faster to let me continue working it later today, the inside is lined with plastic to stop it drying. Rather than having a rim that flairs out from the edge of the pot I am going to keep the wide top and carve out the inside giving a lip. Due to the size of this pot I will also leave thicker buttresses at points along the walls to try and reduce the chance of warping or slumping. The pot as it now rests is 48x26x4cm, I will post more pics when I have done the next stage of carving. The final step in another few days time will be to carve the legs out of the base to complete the pot.

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Matt

[Loretta]

Matt, this is a fabulous thread and I certainly wont be the only one interested. I love your photos and direction and will be copying you when I get my clay. I still have a slab of granite from where my kitchen sink was cut out, I think that will make a great workbench. Knew I'd get some use out of it ...Keep it rolling
cheers Loretta

[mudlarkpottery]

Matt, get rid of the plastic from the inside of the pot and flip it over to dry it without warping and make supports for under the middle of the base when you fire it. You haven't bothered to look at the photo tutorial I sent you, have you!. You shouldn't need to have any buttresses, that clay is pretty robust and doing that won't stop any warping due to clay memory.
Loretta, don't use the granite slab or you'll end up having to scrape the clay off. You need to use wood because the clay won't stick to it. You can also use the underside of vinyl fabric or an old sheet and staple it to a board . That will give a subtle woven texture to the clay. Have a look at what I have used in the photo tutorial I have sent you so far. Compressed fibre cement sheets are good but keep in mind they will dry the clay out so be reasonably quick when rolling out the slabs. I roll out the clay roughly to thickness on and old wooden board then finish rolling out on a fibre cement sheet then dry it to leather-hard on the sheeting before assembling the pot. Don't forget to turn them frequently to dry evenly.
Penny.

[Loretta]

[ Loretta, don't use the granite slab or you'll end up having to scrape the clay off. You need to use wood because the clay won't stick to it.
Thanks Penny, lucky you read this thread or I would have been in a right mess . I have a big thick sheet of marine ply in the shed, I'll get that cut down to a good size if ply is ok.
thanks Loretta

[MattA]

Hey Loretta I will have half that ply sheet if your passing it along I have been working off my timber coffee table, a good excuse to clear most of the junk off.

Penny,

Yes I did look at the tutorial you sent me but this is not slab made, it is carved from a solid block so hopefully there shouldnt be too much memory. The butresses are to support the wide internal rim, I am planning on carving out the walls fairly thin, while this is a big pot I dont want excessive weight. I have an idea regarding the feet that i will discuss with you later that should prevent any slumping during firing. Its a great tip about using foam inserts to hold up the clay, I will need to do that when I finally get to the feet. I noticed in the tutorial Paul posted last year he does the same.

I will be butchering a cushion tonight so I can continue working on this particular pot. I have had enough of little little pots for a day or 2, time to make some that are halfway usable in size and fill up a kiln faster.

Matt

[Loretta]

Matt, do you have your own kiln or do you use Pennys'??
Loretta

[mudlarkpottery]

Loretta, If the marine ply is not sealed or painted it will be ideal. Don't cut it up unless it's too big for you to handle. If you do have to cut it, keep the pieces as they will come in handy. Sorry Matt but chipboard will do until it disintergrates and you've seen my old board - one side for white clay and the flip side for everything else. It is seriously in need of replacing.
Matt, your pot sounds complicated. I look forward to seeing it.
Penny.

[MattA]

Hey Loretta, Penny is very generously allowing me to fire in her kiln, maybe in a few more years & if my pots are liked enough to sell then I can think of getting a kiln.

You will get to see it when its finished if I am happy with the outcome, otherwise its reclaim and rebuild I am working on my cedar coffee table, the clay will still stick to the timber but not as badly as marble or other non porous surfaces. I thought I would be smart & roll slabs out on Aluminium foil, what a mess that was, I live & learn by experimenting.

Matt

[Loretta]

[ I thought I would be smart & roll slabs out on Aluminium foil, what a mess that was, I live & learn by experimenting.

Matt[/quote]

I can imagine the mess, might have looked nice with slivers of alfoil through your pot Just you keep experimenting and tell me what fails...then I'll know not to attempt it

Loretta