When we left, we were talking about templates & composite parts of pots… here is a look at the templates I am using in the studio just now.
They’re made of mounting board which is sturdy and allows for many pots to be cut to size before the edges and corners start to deteriorate. Someday soon I will transfer these mounting board templates to tar paper which lasts indefinitely, but for now, this is an excellent template material.
So, once we have our shapes cut out they are then manipulated in various ways with my hands or forming over a bisque mold made of clay.
Here is a speedy video of a mug being formed after resting for a few hours in partial plastic covering… partial because I need the feet to set up so they can support the mug without collapsing as the wet walls are being pushed out.
Have a look…
So there you have it, a whirlwind tour of the process of working with soft slabs. If you have any questions, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them.
It is a campaign on Instagram that was created by a wonderful maker called Joanne Hawker to bring more awareness to handmade business and to makers… I’ve just discovered it myself and am loving being a part of it. There’s a prompt for every day in March that we all speak to, yesterday was all about “How we got started”.
Here is my contribution:
This movement on Instagram is a really big deal for a lot of reasons, not only because it has given me a focus for the month for insta posts (hoorah!) but also because it has gotten a lot of people to thinking about things that don’t usually enter our head… such as how much handmade business brings to the economy, and how many makers are out there, and how many ways there are to be creative (I really had no idea how creative we all are!).
Because I’m a potter and ADORE wearing handmade jewelry, I tend to lean toward thinking only about clay or sketching or metalsmithing when I think about creativity. Holy smokes, is that narrow minded!
In your free time this month (and if you’re on Instagram) I urge you to check out the #marchmeetthemaker movement happening over there and follow our posts too, click here to find Studio Manager and I in InstaLand.
Process… it’s such a bland word for a really amazing set of steps used across a bazillion art forms. If you think of a better word for this, let me know, okay?
Anyway, many of you ask me often about the steps used to make the pots here in Spiral Tide Pottery so I thought I’d let you in on the process of making each pot that leaves the studio doors.
First, we start with a 1/8th inch thick slab.
Studio Manager overseeing the process.
I used to roll them out by hand, it was meditative and calming to send that rolling pin over and over and over and over the clay… however, it took AGES and I quickly found that the wear on my wrists & shoulders was adding up.
After much deliberation, Studio Manager and I decided to invest in a slab roller and what an amazing difference it has made. Since the arrival of ‘Lola, the SlabRolla’ production has been able to speed up while wear on my body has lessened.
Best. Investment. Ever!
Studio Manager approved
After the clay slab is rolled out, it gets textured with various tools, handmade stamps and found objects to create the surfaces that work best for the glaze I mix (my glaze needs break points and pooling areas to work it’s best magic so texture is crucial).
After texture is added to the slab it is trimmed to size for the pots I’m making using a template I’ve created out of paper first to test it out then it’s cut from very hard card stock to last a bit longer. Sometimes only one template is needed for a pot, sometimes it’s multiple… this teapot form for example has 4 parts to it.
The slab parts are then left to set up a bit after being cut out. If I try to rush this part the slab turns to a floppy mess covered in fingerprints so this is when a tea break happens or I move over to previous slabs that have been setting up while making these new pots.
When it’s timed right, there’s always something needing done and not a moment of ‘down time’… 8 hours can go by in a flash and only the grumbling of my stomach or the urgent need to pee can make time stop again. It’s both beautiful and a bit dangerous to lose track of time that completely so I’m working on having a break becoming part of the fabric of my studio days rather than an afterthought.
I’ll let you know in the next post how I’m doing with that ;o)
