View Larger Image Tips and techniques in our weekly series "Great Ideas for Potters" come from all levels of experience: studio artists, production potters, students, teachers and industry experts.

August 3, 2007

Great Ideas for Potters

by Ceramic Arts Daily | Read Comments (1)

Each week, Ceramic Arts Daily provides you with a selection of helpful hints and ideas drawn from suggestions submitted by Ceramics Monthly readers. Some ideas are quite serious (especially those directed toward health and safety precautions), while others are more lighthearted. You'll find ideas for forming processes, decorating, glazing and firing, along with tips for outfitting your studio and creating and using tools.

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• If you have taken the usual precautions after throwing and still have trouble with the bottoms of pots cracking, place the wedged clay on the wheel so the roll or spiral of the wedge is lying on its side, not on end. To ensure this alignment, pat the clay into a cone immediately after wedging. (If you use a pug mill and do not wedge your clay, place the pug on its side rather than on end.) This method can eliminate virtually all bottom cracks and is especially effective when throwing plates and large, flat-bottomed pieces.
• Extruded clay strip handles can be stored in an airtight plastic container for up to one year. Place moistened paper towels on the bottom of the container before layering extruded strips on top. With the lid sealed properly, these strips will stay flexible for up to a year. What a lifesaver for production potters!
• To minimize the risk of crawling glaze mishaps, glaze the interior of the vessel first, then allow it to dry completely (even if this means waiting an hour) before dipping or pouring exterior glaze. Pots saturated with too much water cannot accept subsequent layering of any more glaze.
• A simple way to speed up the glazing process, which is not always obvious to beginners, is to cluster the bisqueware around or on top of a wood stove or a hot kiln. Naturally, glaze applied to warm pots will dry quicker. And pots to be glazed with multiple layers can be dried faster between applications by returning them to the stove area.
• Excellent ribs and scrapers can be made from Formica scraps. Just cut out the appropriate shape with a hacksaw, drill several holes for purchase and sand the edges smooth.
• Smoothing ribs can be made by cutting appropriate shapes from old leather bags, then sanding the edges. The resulting ribs are stiff, yet flexible, perfect for smoothing leather-hard clay.
• While sanding clay should be avoided because of the danger of inhaling silica particles, it sometimes must be done. Besides wearing a proper respirator, you could do the sanding over a large basin of water (a kitty litter box works well). That way, the dust falls into and is held by the water. This water trap also makes cleanup easier and safer.