By admin
After wedging, form the clay into a log shape that’s almost the same width as the extruder. Next, wrap the clay “log” in plastic wrap (like Saran Wrap) before loading it into the extruder. Once it’s inside the extruder, put the plunger in and extrude the wrapped clay. When finished, take the plunger out and reach in and remove the plastic wrap along with any remaining clay that didn’t get plunged through (it occasionally comes out with the plunger). This technique keeps my extruder clean, minimizes clean up, and eliminates having to remove dried bits of clay from my extruder afterwards! Thanks, Darcy Kinder, and to learn more about extruding and other clay techniques, check out Explore the Surface, an upcoming Potter’s Council workshop dedicated to clay surfaces.
Have a tip of your own that you’d like to share?
Ceramic Arts Daily is the perfect place for you to share your tip with fellow potters. Email your tip today!
Other great tips
1. To keep a thrown cylinder lip circular while stretching from the inside, cut the center out of a plastic lid and encircle the lip of the cylinder with the resulting plastic ring. It will help maintain the lip’s size and shape under considerable stress.
2. When glazing the bottom inside of a decorated bowl or platter with two or more glazes, use a bulb baster to apply and remove excess glaze from the deep area. This eliminates pouring out the glaze and the need to clean the sides of the pot before applying the remaining glazes. For further information on glaze techniques, check out Glazes: Materials, Recipes and Techniques.
3. When you have finished cleaning up and are ready to drain the water from your sink, place a folded towel over the open drain. It will take several hours for the water to drain, but the towel will trap most clay residue. Even when you are careful to prerinse tools in a bucket, you will be surprised by how much clay was in this water.
Not sure about a term you see here?
You can find definitions and explanations for more than 500 ceramic terms, from agateware to zirconium, in the Ceramic Arts Daily Glossary.
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Techniques in our “Tip of the Week” series come from all levels of experience: studio artists, production potters, students, teachers and industry experts.
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By admin
If you have a bare spot on your Christmas tree (or anywhere else in your home) that’s in need of a last-minute decorating idea, here’s a great tip to help you quickly and easily make holes in clay ornaments for hanging. First, cut a plastic drinking straw in quarters. Next, take a straw about two inches in length and punch a hole in the first ornament. Then flip the straw around and use the other end of your straw to make the next hole, forcing out the first piece of clay. Continue flipping the straw to make new holes in the next ornament. Thanks, Nancy, and to learn more about other clay techniques, check out Explore the Surface, an upcoming Potter’s Council workshop.
Have a tip of your own that you’d like to share?
Ceramic Arts Daily is the perfect place for you to share your tip with fellow potters. Email your tip today!
Other great tips
1. It’s always a good idea for potters to stretch the muscles in their hands before throwing. Just immerse your hands in warm water for a few minutes, then stretch. After stretching, apply petroleum jelly or lotion to your hands to seal in moisture and help prevent dry skin.
2. A terrific way to recycle your old telephone book is to use it for weighing out coloring oxides for glaze batches. Pull a page out, crease it diagonally from corner to corner, then lay it in the scale pan. The paper is sturdy enough to support several dozen grams of oxide, and hard milled so that it captures almost none of the finest particles of cobalt. Each new colorant gets a new page, but the pages are consistent as to weight, so it is not necessary to recalibrate each time. For further information on glaze techniques, check out Glazes: Materials, Recipes and Techniques.
3. Most commercially prepared clay comes packaged in plastic bags. Use the empty bags to hold slop and trimming scraps (secured with twist ties) until you have enough to recycle. These bags can sit on the floor next to your wheel. Then when you need a chuck for trimming a large bowl or platter, put a partially filled bag on the wheel and pat it into the required shape.
Not sure about a term you see here?
You can find definitions and explanations for more than 500 ceramic terms, from agateware to zirconium, in the Ceramic Arts Daily Glossary.
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Techniques in our “Tip of the Week” series come from all levels of experience: studio artists, production potters, students, teachers and industry experts.
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By admin
The next time you find yourself in a jam with a piece of broken greenware that you’d like to reconstruct but with no glue to do the job, try your hand at mixing and using this easy recipe for pottery “glue.” First, mix equal parts white vinegar and light corn syrup. Next, add dry/powdered clay a pinch at a time (kind of like making gravy) until the mixture has the consistency of paste. You can use the mixture to reattach broken pieces of pottery just as you would a glue or paste. After you have reassembled the pieces and the “glue” is dry, all you have to do is sand the joints with drywall sandpaper so that the reassembled piece is smooth, and then fire your piece as you normally would. Thanks, Caitlin! And be sure to check out Explore the Surface for other pottery tips that can help you in the studio.
Have a tip of your own that you’d like to share?
Ceramic Arts Daily is the perfect place for you to share your tip with fellow potters. Email your tip today!
Other great tips
1. To get a very slick surface on clay used in slab building, use a 20-inch wallpaper squeegee that has a metal rib extending its full length. After the slab is rolled out, the squeegee is drawn across the slab several times until it is smooth. Such squeegees are available for about $5 at most paint and hardware stores.
2. Some people tend to tighten up with slip designs when they apply them directly to their pots. Instead, try experimenting with designs trailed or brushed loosely on newspaper. Pick out the best one (wait for the shine to disappear), then gently press the newspaper-backed slip onto a leatherhard pot. (The pot’s surface should be moistened.) Slow down the drying at this stage; the paper can be peeled off later. Remember, the design will be in reverse and inside out.
3. Shimming the front feet of your wedging table to raise the front edge about 4 inches will decrease the amount the wrist must bend while wedging. It takes some practice to learn to wedge on an incline, but the reward is less wrist strain, which should help those potters who are prone to carpal-tunnel syndrome.
Not sure about a term you see here?
You can find definitions and explanations for more than 500 ceramic terms, from agateware to zirconium, in the Ceramic Arts Daily Glossary.
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Techniques in our “Tip of the Week” series come from all levels of experience: studio artists, production potters, students, teachers and industry experts.
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By admin
My favorite tools are my assortment of paddles in different shapes and sizes. I have altered some of them to create texturing paddles simply by “drawing” patterns on a flat paddle with a hot glue gun. After the glue cools, you can use the paddle to create patterns and textures on your clay. Use the same hot glue method to create patterns on blocks of wood to use as stamps or on masonite or plywood for texturing surfaces for slabs. Thanks, Sid! And for more tips you can apply in the studio, check out Throwing and Handbuilding or browse our archive of Ceramic Art Tips.
Have a tip of your own that you’d like to share?
Ceramic Arts Daily is the perfect place for you to share your tip with fellow potters. Email your tip today!
Other great tips
1. To assemble soft clay slab-built pieces, try throwing the slabs onto pre-cut forms of 1/16-inch, gray mat board (the kind architects use), then cutting the clay sections around these templates. The mat board will support the form while you join the seams, and a rope around the assembled form will hold everything together. The mat will allow you to build forms softer and larger that can be altered more easily and extensively than leatherhard forms. The cardboard should be removed as soon as possible to avoid cracking. For added texture, try single-sided corrugated cardboard.
2. Small (tiny) items are difficult to load in the glaze kiln. Try positioning them on a strip of masking tape, then placing the tape strip in the kiln. Most of the time, the tape will burn off in the firing with no effect (do not use tape on lustered ware).
3. Coating the handles of your favorite tools with different colored paints will allow you to locate and retrieve them quickly. The color coding is especially useful if you store your tools vertically in a cup or bucket where only the handle ends are visible.
Not sure about a term you see here?
You can find definitions and explanations for more than 500 ceramic terms, from agateware to zirconium, in the Ceramic Arts Daily Glossary.
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Techniques in our “Tip of the Week” series come from all levels of experience: studio artists, production potters, students, teachers and industry experts
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By admin
The splash pan that came with my wonderful new wheel was a little short for the thick bats I use for large platters. This created a lot of problems with slip and trimmings splashing everywhere. Out of frustration came this answer to my problems: I cut a piece of 3/4-inch foam pipe insulation (the kind with a slit all the way down the length) and a piece of 1/2-inch clear vinyl tubing to fit the circumference of the splash pan.
Next, I inserted the tubing into the insulation foam and placed it on top of the splash pan rim, working it down gently onto the rim, making sure the vinyl tubing stayed on top of the rim. I taped the two ends of the foam insulation tightly together with duct tape. This ring can be removed and replaced when extra height is needed, and it also provides a good deal of cushion for your arms when throwing.
Thanks, Ann! And for more tips you can apply in the studio, be sure to browse our archive of Ceramic Art Tips.
Have a tip of your own that you’d like to share? Ceramic Arts Daily is the perfect place for you to share your tip with fellow potters. Email your tip today!
Not sure about a term you see here?
You can find definitions and explanations for more than 500 ceramic terms, from agateware to zirconium, in the Ceramic Arts Daily Glossary.
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