I have had many people ask me how I make a piece. That is hard to explain in words so I am thrilled to be able to do it in pictures. I am currently working on a custom order for a soy sauce vessel. This isn't something I have attempted before so I am pretty much making it up as I go. I am going to update my blog in real time as I move this piece through the many stages over the next few weeks. At the end you will be here with me to see the success or the total flop!
Sometimes I begin with a drawing, others with a mental picture. Once I know where I am headed I weigh out the clay. For this piece I am using cone 5 porcelain. The next step is to wedge the clay to get out any air bubbles.
Next I slap the ball down on a bat centered on the wheel head. I then cone the clay and press it back down urging the clay into the center.
Now that the clay is centered I begin to open it up by pressing with one finger through the middle. I stop about 1/4 inch from the bottom and pull towards myself. After that I am ready to begin pulling the piece upwards by starting at the bottom and applying even pressure from my inner and outer hands. This causes the clay to lift up from the bat.
Now I am ready to begin shaping the piece. As I glide up the wall I am applying pressure from my inner hand to belly out the bottom half. At the neck I am doing the reverse. This is going to be a lidded piece so I create a beveled rim to give the lid somewhere to sit.
I made three pieces in the same way so that I could experiment with different shapes for this project. It also gives me room for error as there are so many places in the process that a piece can be destroyed. These pieces then go on my drying rack where they will sit until they are leather hard.
Now I have to throw the lids and spouts. Rather than centering all of these little balls of clay I am choosing to throw off the hump. I center one large ball of clay and then doorknob off the top for each piece. The lids are thrown upside down. At this stage they look like a shallow bowl or plate. I use the calipers to measure inside the rim of my soy sauce vessel to be sure the lid will fit.
I threw some spouts in a traditional fashion and some with wonky swirls for options.
Now I have to let everything sit overnight to harden before I can start to assemble!
Here are the three lids finshed. I bore a hole under the knob to prevent explosion during firing.
Next I cut the spout at a 30 degree angle and punch holes in the marked place on the vessel to allow the soy sauce to flow. The spout and the vessel are both etched and covered with slip before I firmly press the spout into place. Using my fingertips I smooth the clay to make it look like one piece.
Next I pull each handle by hand.
The handles are attached with etching and slip. I used a bit of paper towel to hold some of the weight from the top handle until the clay has time to harden.
All of the pieces are put into my damp cabinet to give the clay time to rest and catch-up with itself. They will sit here for a day or two before being moved to my greenware shelf. There they will stay for a week or two until they are bone dry.
