November 21, 2008
Handbuilt Pottery Video: Handbuilding with Mitch Lyons
 Handbuilding is not just about building; it's about surface and form and color and volume. Lyons covers it all |
I keep a lot of things in my studio that I think may one day be useful for texture or as a tool of some sort. I also cannot bring myself to throw any kind of wood in the garbage. I have a scrap collection that would be the envy of many a woodchuck. The other day, these two passions (let’s just call them passions for now) came together in a very useful way. I ran out to the garage and gathered every single dowel scrap I had and transfered them to the studio, thereby fulfilling both obsessive habits (okay, let’s call them what they really are). The reason I did this was because I watched the DVD, Handbuilding with Mitch Lyons. He demonstrated a method for making cylinders that employed these dowels, and then went on to explore wonderful surface inlay and texture treatments that really got me excited about handbuilding again. And I got to use some of my scrap wood! — Sherman Hall, Ceramic Arts Daily |
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The “broomstick” method begins with a solid cylinder of clay and a small dowel. Lay the cylinder on its side, place the dowel in the center of one end and, while rolling the coil back and forth, push the dowel into the center of the cylinder. Stop when the dowel is halfway through, and repeat on the opposite end. When the holes meet, push the dowel all the way through the cylinder and roll it like a rolling pin until the hole is slightly larger than the dowel. Don’t roll too much! |
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Insert the next dowel, slightly larger than the last and caontinue rolling, applying slight but even pressure so that the diameter of the now-hollow cylinder is increased. You will need several dowels or cardboard tubes in progressively larger sizes up to the desired diameter. |
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If you want to get the walls of the cylinder absolutely perfect, you can use slats of wood that will level your dowel at exactly the right thickness. |
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Adding texture to a cylinder is just as easy as finding an interesting surface and rolling the cylinder over it using the largest dowel or tube you can. Here, Lyons uses the bottom of a car mat. |
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Check out the full description of the entire DVD Handbuilding with Mitch Lyons
in the Ceramic Arts Daily bookstore. |
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Remove the cylinder from the dowel and let it set up. This is a great time to alter the shape if you wish. Here, Lyons has made it into an ovaland has restricted part of the pot with masking tape to from a “waist” in the middle of the pot.
Attach the bottom of the cylinder to a slab of clay that has been rolled out to a similar thickness as the wall of the cylinder. Slipping and scoring will ensure a good seal and bond. |
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Trim the excess from the slab and secure the bottom to the wall using a paddle or your fingers. |
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Here, Lyons alters the top of the pot further by pinching the center together, removing an indentation and piercing a hole through the top with one of the dowels used to roll out the cylinder. |
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Here is his finished wedding pot, where the bride would drink out of one side of the pot and the groom would drink from the other.
This is just one of several alteration techniques Lyons demonstrates on his DVD. |
Tags: handbuilding, Mitch Lyons, slab, Studio, Techniques
Lisa | February 7th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
This is a great method for making cylinders for those who do not have the equipment or the dexterity for throwing. This method can also be found in “Handbuilding Ceramic Forms” by Elsbeth S. Woody 1979. Johm Murray (Publishers) Ltd.
Mitch is a delight to watch and I am grateful to Ceramics Daily for archiving this very useful video for me to recommend to friends and students. Thanks Lisa.