It never hurts to start with a few basic ideas
and expand from there. Like my clay work, this page is a "work
in progress".
UNIPOTTER'S CLAY CERAMICS TUTORIAL
First, the little ceramics history lesson. Once upon a time..(?)
In the earliest times, earthenware clay was dug from riverbed
deposits ready to use: in the plastic state. It was then "fired,"
or baked into a stone-like state in a camp-fire. Probably the
next development was the addition of ground-up, previously fired
clay (grog) added to a clay body, a slurry (slip) painted over
the raw clay surface, and modifications to the construction of
the fire pit. Many clay objects were sculpted by modeling,
carving (excise), stamping, (impress). Hand-formed pinch-pots,
or coiled vessels, some using paddle and anvil with interiors
thinned, were and are still made world-wide. Depending on
geography, sometimes higher-firing stoneware clays were used;
some traditions multi-colored slips called polychrome were
applied. Clay was being dug, dried, ground, melted (slaked),
precipitated, evaporation dried, and then kneaded (wedged).A
transition from coil-formed to wheel-thrown pottery began.
When sides were added to the fire-pit it became the "kiln",
and when the fire box was located to one side, the kiln became
directional. Hillsides aided in the making of directional kilns,
in fact such kilns were so hot that the iron slips and ash from
the fire often formed glazes over the surface of the wares. In
Asia, such methods were applied to abundant natural white clays,
resulting in the development of high-fired porcelain. Also, the
action of iron changing from ferric (red) oxide to ferrous
(black) oxide, and other colorants as well, was controlled and
manipulated. Bricks were invented. Soon clay molds were used
to make multiple impressions, and in some cases, molten bronze
replaced the clays formerly pressed into these molds. Bronze age.
Clay sculpture then, as today, is either small, or hollow, or
both (with some exceptions). Eventually liquid clay was poured
into molds, called slip-casting. All these methods of making
define what clay is: a suspension of hydrous alumina silicate
with additions of sodium, calcium, lithium, "free" or raw silica,
feldspars, grog, and other additives necessary for the particular
method employed, and in a ratio with water to achieve a desired
consistency. *******
Just like human blood having a chemical similarity to sea water,
red clay is the blood of the earth, and scientific analysis has
shown it is a fairly representative cross-section of the earth
in percentages. Is it any wonder then.....
General suggestions for projects:
(You teachers should print this out, and if there are terms
you don't understand, get thee to a library; this section is
loaded with years, no, lifetimes of potential lessons) Make
your stuff by hand forming? first try to write an 10,000
word essay about your observations of a teaspoon of rice.
(just joking about the 10,000 part, the essay is real)
Better yet, make a few wooden "feelies" Use kinesthetic
memory, "kaizen", ergonomics. Try: pinch pot; coil, w/ incised
and/or roped paddle, burnish, polish, mishima, incise, modeling,
drawing, painting, stenciling, hand prints, slip trail and cast,
botanical impress or stencil, impress; wood/potato/bisque stamp.
Pictoral techniques: benday dot, screens, cross hatching, doodle,
graffiti, montage, designs from fabrics, baskets, etc. Glazes:
ash glazes, slip glaze, iron saturates, adventurines, rutile
orange, feldspars, slips, engobes, underglazes, stains, terra
sigilatta, crackle, crater glaze, majolica, celadons. Firings:
wood-fired, salt-fired, soda, gas, electric, propane, pit-fired,
what? Algorithms: test tiles, ceramic materials, methods,
textures, textiles, colors, impressions, methods, species;
know what I mean? Pit/saggar fire: grass, hay, sawdust, wood,
leaves, chips, hedge apples, salt-soaked cloth, magazine pages,
newspapers, shredded paper, metals, oxides, stannous chloride,
iron chloride, sodium chloride, (chlorides, phosphates, sulfides,
sulphates). Want to savor the moment? Apply the concepts of Tea
terminology: cha no yu - harmony, respect, purity, tranquility;
Sabi - retiscent and lacking in assertivness of the new;
Wabi - quiet simplicity; Shibui - astringent, austere, roughness;
Mono no aware - melancholy spirituality. *******
Remember the "Saws of the Boston Scrod": (1) Every Dog Has His Day
(2) Never Confuse Effort with Results (3) Talk's Cheap. ******
My personal philosophy on creating on the potter's wheel:
think small, use kinesthetic memory, use slop instead of water.
Work with initial conditions: wedging, forming ball, centering;
the faster I go, the behinder I get. Do less, accomplish more.
Go slow, keep it dry, throw from the inside: every pot has it's
own soul. Keep it thin, reduce trim. Keep it simple, stupid;
you can only please yourself. Practice kaizen, utilize
ergonomics, switch stance. ********
Processes used to work in clay: pinch pot, coil, also incised
and/or roped paddle, slab, rolling pin slab, slab roller,
"thrown" slab, throwing, jigger, jolley, hump mold, bisque
mold, press mold, slip cast, extruders of all types,
relief, burnish, polish, mishima, majolica, wax resist,
carve, modeling, drawing, painting, illustration,
printing - photo process, silk & litho, transfer, decal;
stenciling, taping, silhouettes, cut out stenciled leaf
prints, Tamba (Rhodes) mulberry leaf & slip glaze,
sprayer, airbrush, incise, excise, sgraffito, slip
trail, impress, wood/potato/bisque stamp, collage
montage, frottage, sand cast, sawdust filler, cloth on slab,
canvas, burlap, cheese cloth, netting, wire mesh, clay lined
basket, sand blasting, hand prints, fossil fish, plants,
animal tracks, skeletons, death masks, body casts.
********
The nature thing that makes clay way cool: Fire clouds,
native clays, burnished and blackened, burnished blood red,
pit-fired, raku crackle, metallic flashing in raku or saggar
(hedgeapples), reduction earthenware, overfired earthenware,
saggar-fired, pit-fired porcelain, low-fire salt, residual
salt, salt glaze, slip trail, slip engobes, slip glaze, fly
ash, ash glaze, mishima, shino, carbon trap, crater glaze,
granite grog.
*********
Okay, maybe it's all just notes to myself, but I don't mind sharing
Eric Hansen, Lawrence, Kansas. hansens@eagle.cc.ukans.edu