September 2024 Pottery Skills

In the September Course, two smaller projects will help you build a “toolbox” of pottery skills to equip you for making your main project

Our main project in September will be a figurative form. This can be a statue in the normal sense or a candle holder or whatever else you’d like to make. The figure can be a person, an animal or an imaginary creature.

Preparation
We’ll start the course by making two smaller projects, They’ll be made with a range of building and decorating techniques that will give you a “toolbox” of skills to make your figure.

Darting

If you’ve ever sewn, you’ll know about darts. They are a very efficient way to model. Darts can create a waistline or shoulders on a figure. After spending some time playing with darts, we’ll make a darted bowl.

Wax Resist

One of the ways you could decorate your figure is with wax resist. The form is covered with wax and then your design is scratched through the wax to the clay below. Then, black underglaze is rubbed into the incised lines and the piece is fired. In the firing, the wax burns away, leaving the black lines behind. These are then filled in with coloured underglazes.

Pinch pots

It’s likely we’ll use pinch pots to make the figures and it’s important they’re made well and joined securely. We’ll practice by making a small cactus in a pot. These will also help you be creative with stamps rollers and incising.

Coloured slips and oxides

These can also be used to decorate the figures. The slips are painted onto greenware, fired, and then iron oxide is used to highlight the texture and patterns in the piece.