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In today’s post, Bill Jones highlights seven great tools for rolling texture onto pottery. Some can be hand made using readily available supplies and some can be found at your local pottery supplier. All are super fun! – Jennifer Harnetty, editor. |
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There are two basic types of rolling texture tools—roulettes and texture rollers—and they are both capable of impressing a continuous repeat pattern on clay. These tools are readily available from your local ceramic supply and you can also make your own.
The most readily available and flexible material to use for a texture roller is clay. Begin with a coil approximately an inch in diameter and any length and allow it to set up. Roll it on a textured surface, like the back of a rug, then bisque fire. If you want to carve a texture, do it freehand or create a pattern on paper using non-permanent ink so the moist clay will pick up the design. Your pattern needs to be a little over three times the diameter of the roller.
Plaster
Tip: Although not as durable, those big pieces of sidewalk chalk are easy to carve as well.
Wood
You can make texture rollers from wood dowels or rolling pins using Puffy Paints or hot glue to create patterns. Also, wrapping a piece of wood with heavily textured fabric, doilies, yarn, string, or cord creates interesting textures as well.
MKM Tools manufactures a wide selection wooden roulettes in three different widths (1.5 cm, 3 cm, and 6 cm) called Rollers4Clay. Each roller can be easily mounted on a single universal handle, and there are dozens of patterns available. The rollers can be used by themselves or along with MKM’s wooden stamps. These rollers are made out of a fine-grained wood and cut deeply to leave a bold impression. The rollers are coated with Tung oil for durability.
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“WHAT IF?”
Sandi Pierantozzi shows how these two words can help you take your work in new directions in her two-disc DVD What if? Explorations with Texture and Soft Slabs. What direction will your work take? Order your copy and find out! |
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Puffy Paints or hot glue are a quick way to add texture to a roller. Ready to use in 1–6 hours. Bamboo
Although actually a grass rather than a wood (as you might expect due to its durability), bamboo has been used to make texture rollers in the Far East for centuries. Bamboo Tools makes rope markers by wrapping bamboo with different thicknesses of rope in a variety of configurations. Rope markers were used on pottery during the Neolithic period in Japan and the name Jomon, meaning “cord-marked,” which described the pots made by these people, became the name for the entire culture.
Rubber/Plastic
The newest texture rollers on the market are made from high-quality nonstick rubber and fit on a small paint roller-type frame. The rollers are easy to change so only a single handle is needed. Amaco makes clay texture rollers with four different patterns that are 4¼ inches long and Xiem makes a 7-inch roller with 31 interchangeable patterns.
Sources Check the websites of the manufacturers to see their complete selection of roulettes and texture rollers. Your local ceramic supplier may also carry a selection of their tools.
Images of do-it-yourself rollers excerpted from Daryl Baird’s forthcoming book From a Slab of Clay. Thanks to David Gamble (Amaco), Rick McKinney (MKM Tools), David Lee (Bamboo Tools), and Kevin Nguyen (Xiem Clay Center) for additional images.
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For more great decorating tool ideas, be sure to download your free copy of Ceramic Decorating Tool Techniques: How To Use Clay Pencils, Slip Trailers, Glaze Pens, and Carving Tools to Decorate Ceramics.
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