r/Ceramics

This thing came out nicely, dark fantasy sculpt covered in gnomes

https://imgur.com/aCCLsfs

https://imgur.com/zaC0wYY

I've been sharing some of my woodworking projects over on r/woodworking lately, but I thought I'd share my first venture into ceramics here.

This project started when a client asked me, "Can you do this?" Of course, I said yes.

There was just one small problem: I had never worked with ceramics before and had absolutely no idea how to do it.

So after getting the project, I spent the next few days watching YouTube tutorials and figuring out how slip casting, plaster molds, glazing and firing actually worked. Nothing like jumping straight into the deep end.

The finished sculpture was designed for a beach house and consists of 150 ceramic fish swimming across the wall.

The process actually started in more familiar territory for me. I carved a master fish out of hardwood, then used that master to make 20 plaster molds. I needed quite a few molds because producing this many fish from one or two would have taken forever.

From those molds I slip-cast 160 fish. The installation was always designed for 150, but I made 10 extras because I figured a few weren't going to survive my first attempt at ceramics. That turned out to be a good decision—about four broke along the way.

For the finish, I used a white underglaze followed by a clear glaze. I wanted to keep all the fish white and relatively simple, while the clear glaze gives them some depth and lets them catch the light.

The school itself was designed in Rhino. I went through quite a few iterations before settling on the final composition. Once I was happy with it, I printed the entire layout at full size across multiple sheets of A1 paper and used those as a template to drill all 150 mounting locations.

Each fish is mounted on a white-painted aluminum rod, with the rods varying from about 5 cm to 25 cm (2"–10"). That variation brings some fish much farther off the wall than others, creating the three-dimensional movement and shadows you see in the finished installation.

I used aluminum rather than steel because this is in a beach house and I didn't want to worry about rust from the humid, salty environment.

Since the fish are slip-cast, they're hollow on the back. The rods are secured inside that cavity with two-part epoxy, so the attachment point is hidden once they're installed. Not the most sophisticated solution, but it worked extremely well.

Looking back, agreeing to make 150 ceramic fish before knowing how to make a single ceramic fish was probably a little ridiculous, but I learned a lot very quickly.

Sometimes "Of course I can do that" is followed by a lot of YouTube tutorials.

This weekend I attended a 2 day workshop with the Black ceramic collective, Kaabo Clay. We had an incredible instructor, Sam Wallace who teaches at Baltimore Clayworks. I’m shocked that I could build something this big in less than 48 hours! This is traditional Jamaican coil building technique! I’m so excited to take what I learned and build more pieces!

Jingdezhen Ceramics

carving

Aesthetic of Divinity

shot glasses, miso soup bowl, candle holder and "multipurpose" shallow dish! It's multipurpose because I originally saw it to be used for sauces or banchan side dishes, but somebody said they'd use it as a jewelry plate, for like rings and bracelets and such! Thanks for looking!

I used black and red underglaze on leatherhard greenware, bisque fired and glazed with amaco's HF clear glaze. They are completely food safe as well.

I’m fairly pleased with how she turned out I used mid-range Dover white clay and various underglazes

The lid doesn’t fit too well but it still works and is so cute!! I love the glaze (made by my local studio, not commercial). My first cone 6 piece!

I made this cat mug today and I’m very pleasantly surprised by how it came out. It’s so silly and fun

I’m scoring & slipping and handles keep popping off during drying… I had them wrapped to dry slower and this am I uncovered thinking I was in the clear…checked hours later & off 🤦🏽‍♀️ should have just left covered??…dry slower??

Hello! I am in a bit of a pickle. (Sorry for grammar, English is not my first language). I was hired not to long ago at a place that uses ovens like the photo I found, to bake the ceramics after guest paint it. my role has NOTHING to do with the ovens, but with my lack of sleep I put something on the closed lid. The oven supposed to be colder than it was. It coursed a fire but everyone and everything is alright. The only problem is that now on the lid island bit of a back there is a big black stain (sadly I don’t have a photo of it).
The fire was caused by plastic basket with sponges in it.
My menager is not mad, but she wants my help with cleaning it tomorrow, and I really want to up my wrongs, but I don’t know exactly how could I clean it. She concated the firm responsible for care and they said that replacing the lid would cost like A LOT. But it is not really necessary. But it can be cleaned. The mess is very blacks
Do anyone have any types of suggestions of how could I clean it of? I would really appreciate that, any help.

As a hobbyist potter, I wanted to see how playa dust behaved when firing it in my kiln. After some experiments, here's the best I could do using JUST playa dust as a coating on top of the porcelain disks.

I found that by sifting it very fine and mixing with enough water to get two thin coats, I could achieve this surface. It's VERY finicky, too little (off to the left) and it's patchy, then the thicker it gets it's very glossy and beautiful, but too thick and it clumps up and fails. It's a very small difference.

Further experimentation is required, with other additives to get it to adhere a bit better, but it's actually pretty impressive that it melts into a glaze-like coating at Cone 6 (2200-ish degrees F).

The more you know! (Also, wear a fucking n95 mask in dust storms please, playa dust has a high silica content and that shit gets into your lungs and DOES NOT COME OUT.)

Hi, I am a new beginner in pottery, only started learning few months ago. While I enjoy throwing,I feel I am not good at trimming :(

I found that I always have this wavy mark on my piece when I am trimming, and I am really not sure if it’s because of my wheel (VEVOR wheel, the newest model), or my trimming tool (I mostly use Mudtool all in one trimming tool, but sometimes the trimming set that VEVOR gave me as well, I think they are just cheap metal) or my technique or the condition of the clay.

I initially doubted my wheel, while the doubt still hasn’t been cleared, but when I am trimming on a good shimpo wheel in a studio, I still have this kind of mark. And it’s inconsistent, sometimes I have it, sometimes I don’t.

I find it seems like there is a “drag” feeling between my clay and my tool, like it almost feels like my tools is occasionally stuck on the piece.

Would it also be my piece is off-centered? I am a new beginner, so I don’t know how to tap center, I usually use the method of carving circle at the bottom of a piece, and adjust based on how off centered the circle is.

I found sometimes the condition of clay also matters, apparently the drier my piece is, the less likely it will show this kind of wavy effects, but if my piece is just about leather dry, and this wavy line is always visible.

I am really unsure how I can improve to avoid this, and even though I think my cheap wheel might have contributed to this, the one or two times when I trim on a shimpo wheel and still producing this effect tells me it’s probably skill issue.

Could I please get some advice on this?

Edit: Wow I am amazed by the amount of useful and informative comments coming in 🥹 It’s a bit hard to reply to all comments, but I really appreciate all of them!!!

For any future viewer of the post, TLDR + things I am going to try from learning from the comments:

- start trimming when the clay is softer, I think I left my pieces out for too long, and the clay is already quite dry (the result of trimming is almost powdery by this stage)

- holding my thumb down to make my tool steady

- use a grater / shredder to remove the chatter once it appears, I just learned that once it appears it would be hard to take away! (No wonder the harder I try the more chattery it became, I went too far with few of my pots because I was trying so hard to remove the wave)

- check my centering again before starting, feel if my hands are moving with the piece or is it centered?

- turn down the speed of my wheel, I will try to keep it around 50-60% next time

Time to make 150 casts for this series! After more molds are made, I’ll be able to cast at least 4 a day.

This is a new project for me. I am going roll a white engobe layer on top in the areas that are not relief in the same manner as I have been inking original blocks for printing. And then fire them to Cone 04 as they will be wall hanging art pieces.

These are heavily inspired by "Swift Creek" style stamped pottery that was created in the area near my home in Athens GA.

I am learning a lot through the process!

I made a lamp! My first hand building project and I am super stoked.

Later today I’ll properly attach the leggies to the body, but I had to take a fresh out of the kiln photo