since
1975
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TIPS
AND TECHNIQUES
Submitted
by Clayfolk members
Remember : If you share studio space with a partner, DON’T offer advise if it’s not
asked for. Even then … think strongly about it!
This has probably saved the
lives, relationships and marriages of many a potter!
WD40 is a perfect release for molds and stamps. Brush it on anything you want to use
for a mold - plastic, glass, etc. and the clay doesn’t stick. And it doesn’t
hurt the clay at all, even when recycled. All your stamps and textures will
benefit. If you don’t want to breath the spray from a can, buy a gallon can
from the automotive department and pour some in a smaller container. Margarine
tubs are good.
Work quicker : Made
some mugs and want to put handles on the next day? You want them to get
leatherhard, neither too soft or too dry. Plastic covers keep them too wet; no
covering lets them dry out. So put several layers of newspaper over the fresh
work and it should be just right the next day. Be sure to use enough paper or
they will still get too dry.
Reposition your bats : I
sometimes remove a pot from the wheel to let it firm up a bit and then put it
back to throw some more. The bat pins on my wheel appear to be placed the
same, but not they are not quite the same. The pot is not quite
centered unless I happen to put it back the same way as I had before. I
put red fingernail polish on one of the pins. I use plastic bats that have one
round and one oval hole, so I put the round hole on the red bat pin. Now I can
replace the bat the same way I had it before.
The
website to look at is Ceramics Art Daily. Many of us are signed up to get a
daily email. I have learned quite a bit. The video that prompted my hint was
one that has allowed me to make much bigger thin pitchers. I throw a mug shape
as big as I can thin, about 9 inches tall. When that is leather hard I throw a
thick donut. I put the leatherhard base back on the wheel (hasn't been cut) and
place the donut on the bat upside down on the base (hasn't been cut off the
bat). When I get it positioned I cut the bat off the donut and throw the top.
You have to be a really steady thrower to do this.
For
small slip trailing jobs, the small plastic pipets used in high school science
labs work like a charm. The “pipes” are too long so just cut to any desired
length, put the end in the glaze or slip, squeeze , and you’re ready to trail.
A
grapefruit peeler makes a great tool !
In
a hurry to clean your bisque? Pull it out of the kiln still pretty warm and
wash immediately in water. The hot pot steams itself dry.
You
can paint mobile wax around joined edges (like handles or decorations). The wax
slows down drying time and eliminates cracking.
Q-tips and eye shadow sponges work great for smoothing cracks and corners where your
fingers won’t fit.
Prior
to glazing, blow the dust off the pots with an air compressor.
When
trimming pots that have a thin bottoms which could dent, use jar lids to
disperse the pressure while trimming. Keep a wide range of jar lid sizes in the
studio.
When
drying mostly handbuilt pieces, I use bean bags of all sizes as weights. Use
rice inside the “bean bags” as it seems to help the drying process.
During
handbuilding, I usually bevel the pieces of clay before placing them together.
This cut off piece is perfect to use where you need a small coil to join the
pieces together. It fits into the “vee” formed by placing two pieces of clay
together and can be easily smoothed.
Don’t
wax bottoms. Keep a damp, short napped carpet sample on top of your work table.
Just wipe the pot on the carpet to remove glaze. Foam can work, too. Rinse
carpet or foam when glaze builds up.
If
you use drywall between tiles, or for other purposes, frame the drywall pieces
with duct tape to keep plaster from getting on your clay.
Save
dryer lint for stuffing inside 3-D work. It’s soft, pliable and recyclable.
Are
your porcelain pots, large tiles, or other flat bottomed pieces sticking to
your kiln shelves? Place powdered aluminum hydrate on your shelves under
sensitive pieces. Be careful not to get any aluminum hydrate on your pots or on
the shelves below or you will have crusty white blotches on your other pots.
You can carefully sweep up and re-use for multiple firings as aluminum hydrate
is NOT cheap. If money isn’t an issue, vacuum shelves with a shop vac.
Make
a slab by throwing the clay in its bag several times down on a cement floor. Then
roll it between two equally thick sticks.
Use
a printing blanket between your slab of clay and the rollers
CORRECTING
PIN HOLES AND BUBBLE MARKS : Before you change your glaze recipes, throw out
colors or decide to give up glazing altogether, try this simple tip : Bisque your greenware at a slightly higher
temperature. For instance, if you currently bisque at cone 5, bisque at cone 4.
The hotter temperature burns off more of the debris and impurities which
usually causes pin holing and/or bubble marks.
SCRATCHING
OR SCORING POTTERY : Hurray! A great little tool is on the market that is ideal
for scratching/scoring pottery in preparation for putting two pieces together.
You can purchase it from a ceramic supplier, such as Georgies. It looks like a
metal stick with five or six thin metal prongs at the end.
CLEANING
UP GREENWARE : Although flat sand paper works fine, a sand paper BLOCK works
even better on fragile greenware. We have cut our breakage in half using a
bock. If your pottery is still leather hard, try using one of the green plastic
scrubbies sold for kitchen use.
DRILLING
HOLES : Drilling holes in pottery for colanders, candle jars and anything else
that needs a hole is fun and simple if you use a small hand-held battery
operated drill. The drill bit isn’t real fast, so it doesn’t get away from you.
And it’s easily controlled. When your pottery is leatherhard,, use a pin tool
to mark where you want the holes to be. Then place the end of the drill bit
over the hole and DRILL. Clean-up is quick and easy with a green scrubby.
MAGIC WATER
LANA
WILSON'S
- 1 gallon water
- 3 Tbsp liquid sodium silicate
- 1 1/2 tsp soda ash
Use
this whenever joining one piece of clay to another, handles or other
attachments. Also use as the liquid to make paper clay. It’s stronger than slip
because the mixture forces the molecules in the separate pieces to realign
themselves, creating an interlocking bond.
Each
of the three following recipes uses the same ingredients. They are just mixed
in different proportions. Add this info to Lana’s recipe and I think the
proportions are not rocket science. Sodium Silicate is sometimes called
"egg keep" or "water glass" and found in drugstores.
STEVE
FULMER'S
- 1 liter water
- 2 teaspoons sodium silicate
- 1/4 teaspoon soda ash
CHERI GLASER'S
- 1 gallon water
- 3 Tbsp sodium silicate
- 5 grams soda ash
JOYCE ROGER'S
- 1/2 gallon water
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons sodium silicate
- 2 1/2 grams soda ash
PEGGY'S
SPOOZE
- 1/3 part dry, finely crushed clay (whatever clay body you are using)
- 1/3 part corn syrup
- 1/3 part vinegar
- and a drop of hydrogen peroxide to keep it from fermenting
PAPER
CLAY
I
saved THE BEST for last. This stuff makes miracles happen. You may fill cracks
you thought would never heal, even on bisque and you might be able to repair
and reglaze in one step sometimes.
This
recipe of a spooze-like material uses paper clay using your own clays. It
contains magic water, clay, paper linter which has been shredded and boiled,
then stirred in all together. This stuff makes a terrific adhesive when
assembling clay parts or patching cracks. Also try making some using calcined
clay for patching cracks in bisque. Refrigerated to prevent it from smelling.
Or use peroxide or bleach." Start with Lana Wilson's Magic Water. Add
sufficient boiled toilet paper or egg cartons and clay to make the clay mass
sufficiently thick for your purposes. Sometime quite stiff, other times
"gushy". If too "gushy," it can be stiffened with a bit of
vinegar. roxhun@gmail.com
Another
recipe for paper clay repairs : Repair
cracks in greenware, or bisqued Or even final fire pieces. Paste a mixture of
your own clay as a slip and toilet paper, 2 to 1, blend and push into crack. Refire
the piece.
SCORE
NO MORE
First,
make your own repair paste. Pat Horsley's "Score No More" slip and
repair paste is nothing short of miraculous. I use it to joining pieces of clay
together, handles or other attachments. Here's a recipe to make it from your
clay:
- 1000 grams of your clay body in dry form
- 20 grams Custer Feldspar
- 20 grams Bentonite
- 20 grams Gum Arabic
- 1 teaspoon liquid Darvan
It
is IMPORTANT to disperse the Gum Arabic. Pour boiling water over and add water
up to a slip consistency. A blender really helps, then add Darvan (LIQUID) when
it is well mixed. Add a tiny bit of bleach if you will store it to keep odors
down.
REFIRING
Refiring
is uncertain because the piece is no longer porous and has had most of the
"heat work" required, refire at one cone lower than the original
target temperature.
If
you fired to ^6, now refire to ^5. Fire more slowly. Heating as fast second
time around, will invite trouble. Do think about firing pieces on a thin layer
of grog to increase the surrounding heat to allow movement, especially on large
flat pieces. I ALWAYS do this, not just re-firing.
REGLAZING
Reglazing
is best done with a sponge or spray. Sponging allows the glaze to self-level.
To encourage the glaze to attach, warm the piece, use a cheap hair spray or APT
II to lend adhesion. I add APT II into the glaze. It really helps!
When
joining pieces of clay to the original clay body, use the same clay with
similar water content. Then cover tightly. To meld the pieces together and
equalize water or moisture content dry slowly by covering with plastic.
RECYCLING
TIPS
If
your clay is too hard to work (but not bone dry), put a little water in the
plastic bag in which the clay came, with the clay. Seal the bag well and
submerge in a bucket of water. Leave overnight. The water in the bag will be
pressed into the clay by the pressure of the water in the bucket.
Recycle
foil lined plastic zip lock bags, such as Splenda bags. You can use these bags
to save scrap bits of clay or trimmings, add a little water, zip close top, and
mix.
To
rehydrate clay that has been in the bag a little too long, take a dowel (about
½” in diameter), six inches longer than a bag of clay and cut it at a 45 degree
angle at one end. Push it into the clay in four places without penetrating the
bottom. Then fill each hole with water and let stand for a few days.
Use
a 2 gallon container with a plastic bag inside (you can use other sizes of
containers). Scraps at put into the plastic lined container to dry. When the
container is almost full, add water to cover. Leave 2 days and then pour out
water that has settled on top of the clay. Dump the clay out of the container
onto half of a regular size bath towel. Fold over the other side of the towel
and press down on towel to flatten clay to about one inch thick. Turn the towel
once daily for 3 to 5 days, checking the clay once a day to test for dryness.
When dry enough to wedge, cut the clay into sections, roll up and wedge. It’s
okay for the clay to still be quite soft. Let the balls of wedged clay stiffen
up and then wedge again. Repeat a couple of times. When the wetness/dryness of
the clay is what you prefer, bag it up!
BURNISHING Clay for Pit fire or………?
To
burnish small beads : Dry beads in an aluminum pie tin, spritz with water and
shake. Repeat until sound changes from hollow to solid.
This
is a hint for polishing (or burnishing tiles) that are very intricate or have
relief designs on them so they are hard polish with a stone. Put a thick piece
of soft packing foam or sponge inside of a plastic vegetable bag. The plastic
works great and the foam helps to keep your fingernails away from the clay so
that they will not gouge your work.
For
fast, smooth burnished pots, smooth the newly thrown piece with a metal rib. Do
not wire off the bat. When leather hard return to the wheel and smooth again
with the metal rib again. Wire off the bat. Let the pot dry. Spray with Terra
Sig starting at the top. Keep banding wheel spinning fairly rapidly. As lots of
drips form, follow them down the pot with the spray gun. They’ll disappear
leaving a nice even coat. Dry for awhile and repeat. When dry, rub gently with
a rag (one of those meant to dry your car). Your pots will glow!
The
best thing I have ever found for burnishing a pot (getting it read for the pit
fire , saggar, raku or horsehair) is a flat piece of Teflon. This was given to
be my a guy who worked as a mechanic at an Air force base, and I don’t know
where to get more. It’s a flat, 1/8” thick sheet, slightly flexible than can be
cut with heavy shears. Maybe furniture sliders made of Teflon would work. Perhaps
some kind of kitchen tool with a flat shape. A flat shape doesn’t dent the clay
like a spoon or stone.
TILES
Dry
tiles on racks so air can circulate. Fire the tiles vertically. (You can get
free racks from any appliance store that recycles of freezers, refrigerators,
ovens, etc.)
Keep
tiles flat while drying. Place tiles on flat, ¾” plywood with newspapers laid
top and bottom. Stack alternate layers of newspaper/tiles at least three high.
Then stack additional plywood and/or other weights onto the top layer. After a
couple of days, unstuck everything, flip tiles over, replace newspapers, and
restack everything. Keep doing this until the tiles are fairly dry. Next, let
the tiles air dry unstacked for a day or so until they are completely dry.
Bisque.
WAXING
If
you make a lot of pottery with flat bottoms and need to wax them before
glazing, the technique below works quickly and neatly. Because the paraffin
will smell, we recommend using a face mask. You will need the following
supplies:
- Paraffin wax (found in the canning section of local grocery stores)
- A level
- A flat electric griddle
- An 8” x 12” rectangle cooking pan
- Scraps of cardboard
- Lamp oil
- Wooden popsicle stick
- Small brush
- Face mask
1.
Place the rectangle cooking pan on top of the griddle.
2.
Use the level measure the top of the pan to make sure it’s level. We measure
all four sides.
3.
Place cardboard scraps under the legs of the griddle to level the pan.
4.
Turn the griddle to 330 (works best on our griddle)
5.
Melt enough paraffin in the pan to reach the desired depth you want the
paraffin to cover on your pottery (Use the popsicle stick to measure). Add more
paraffin when you notice the depth shrinking.
6.
Slowly place clean BISQUEWARE into the melted paraffin. If the paraffin is the
correct temperature, it will turn the bisqueware dark where it’s dipped.
7.
Removed bisqueware immediately and place upside down on newspaper (make sure
paraffin has dried so it doesn’t drip onto the sides of your pottery.
8.
You can thin the paraffin by adding lamp oil to it.
9.
If the paraffin doesn’t cover a hole or dip in the bottom of your pottery, use
the paint brush to paint the hot paraffin onto the missed area
This
might seem like a lot of set-up, but you can dip a large number of pieces in a
very short time and each will come out even and straight. We keep a designated
griddle and pan in our studio so we’re always set to wax.
For
those who would like to promote their wares online.
The
main Etsy Site : http://www.etsy.com/
Facts
on Selling on Etsy : http://www.etsy.com/how_selling_works.php
Networking
Tools
Facebook
: http://www.facebook.com
Twitter
: http://twitter.com/