A Sweet Handbuilt and Wheel Thrown Dessert Bowl
In today’s post, Deborah Schwartzkopf, a master at designing beautiful non-round functional pottery, shows us how she makes her dessert bowls. The clip is an excerpt from her utterly inspiring new DVD Pieces and Patterns: Complex Forms from Handbuilt and Wheel-Thrown Parts, which is now shipping!! Enjoy!
Video of the Week: How to Make a Freeform Handbuilt Serving Tray with a Faux Foot
Gail Kendall has a fantastic ability to manipulate clay that seems too soft to form with. Time and time again during the filming of her new video From Plate to Tureen: Slab and Coil Building, I thought to myself “there’s no way that is going to work!” But time and time again, Gail pulled off what I thought was impossible! In today’s video, Gail demonstrates the unconventional method she uses to make trays and platters with what she calls faux feet. I love the low-tech simplicity of this method – all you need are a slab, a coil, and your hands (plus lots of practice to get it to work with such soft clay!). – Jennifer Harnetty, editor.
Upcycled Utensils: Adding Handmade Handles to Out-of-Commission Kitchen Tools
As clay artists, we’ve all upcycled old, out-of-use objects into useful tool studio tools (think credit card rib). But I had never thought about it in terms of using my clay work to help breathe new life into an old object until I saw Kristin Pavelka’s article in the November/December 2012 issue of Pottery Making Illustrated. Kristin finds antique kitchen utensils with broken handles, and replaces the broken handles with gorgeous handmade handles. In today’s post, I have excerpted a bit from the article.
Pottery Video of the Week: Using Plastic to Make Handbuilding with Thin Slabs Easier
Most master potters have at least one signature piece or technique that they are known for. These signature pieces embody years of study, practice, and refinement, and demos of these pieces are often requested by workshop attendees. That’s why we decided to start a new series of CAD videos that focuses on in-depth demonstrations of the signature forms of well respected and talented ceramic artists. I’m happy to launch that series today with the release of three “Signature Series” downloadable videos: Lorna Meaden’s Watering Can; Suze Lindsay’s Ewer; and Mike Jabbur’s Teapot. These shorter downloads will be great for folks who are working on developing a form, need a little more insight or inspiration on that form, but don’t necessarily want a full-length DVD. For today’s video, I have excerpted a bit from Lorna’s Watering Can video in which she explains a trick she came up with to make handbuilding with thin porcelain slabs easier.
Pottery Video of the Week: A Great Lesson Plan for Understanding Clay and the Human Figure
It’s that time of year again. Students and teachers are heading back to school. So we thought we’d have a back-to-school sale on of our most popular DVD for the education set – Neil Patterson’s Clay Projects and Fundamentals. Perhaps the best way to gain an understanding of clay and all it’s properties is to pick up a lump and start shaping it. And modeling clay into the human form is a great way to learn about proportion, symmetry, and gesture. In today’s post, Neil takes us through a simple figure sculpting project. This project also ties in well with history and world cultures lessons.
From Slab to Grab: Creating Textured Handles
Texture in clay can be addictive. Who doesn’t love pressing objects into a piece of soft clay? And why stop at the handles? As Annie Chrietzberg demonstrates in today’s post, textured slab handles are a great way to carry texture throughout a piece – plus they are less messy than pulled handles and can provide instant gratification. Have a look!
Wheel Throwing and Handbuilding to Add Quirky Personality to a Vase
Nick Ramey started out making high-fire, wheel-thrown pottery, but during graduate school became enamored with handbuilding low-fire earthenware sculptures. After grad school he decided to combine his various new skills and interests to make thrown and altered functional work, but add sculptural details to infuse it with humor. In today’s post, Nick explains his forming process. To learn about his decorating processes, check out the September/October 2012 issue of Pottery Making Illustrated!
Pottery Video of the Week: A Super Easy Way to Get the Pulled Handle Look Without Pulling the Handle
Sandi Pierantozzi demonstrates a couple of variations on her flat pulling handle technique in today’s excerpt from her DVD, which is now available as a digital download! Enjoy!
Building Complex Pottery Forms Simply
Bryan Hopkins jokingly refers to his pots as dysfunctional vessels because of their high loss rate. But he says that just comes with the territory when your goal is to push the material to its limits. In today’s post, an excerpt from an upcoming article in Ceramics Monthly, Hopkins explains his process, which includes throwing posts on the wheel, cutting them into slab sections, pressing some of the sections into bisque molds, then putting all back together in interesting constructions.
Pottery Video of the Week: The Puffy Handle – Sandi Pierantozzi Demonstrates a Great Alternative to a Pulled Handle
Pulled handles are lovely, but they are not the only option for creating great handles on your pottery. With a little imagination and skill, you can make successful handles in a multitude of ways. Our good friend Sandi Pierantozzi, who is not lacking in the imagination or the skills department, returns today with a great idea for an alternative to the pulled handle. In this clip, Sandi shares the technique for making her “puffy” handles. Enjoy!
