r/Pottery

My aim was to create a sculpture that reflects the way I dream to feel, which is peaceful, free and determined to find purpose. I also included some pictures from when I just finished sculpting, before drying.

The tip of one of the wings broke off during the drying process. My therapist said it would be better to fire the broken off tip separately, so I could reattach it after the biscuit firing with a special paste they have (biscuit glue? I'm not sure if that's the word), so that's what we did. It took a lot of my patience to reattach the piece in a way that it would stay and not break off again, but it was worth it. We then fired it a second time to secure the piece. After that I painted it with a glaze called "oil slick", which was a powder I had to mix with water.

It came out of the kiln after the glaze firing this morning and when my therapist gave it to me, it was still warm. You can still subtly see the break on the wing, which I'm actually kind of loving because of the symbolism. I got a bit emotional seeing it finished after working on it for so long. I'm so proud of it, so I wanted to share it here.

Clay is such a transformative material, with having to go through all of the different stages and then at the end not fully knowing how a glaze will turn out. It's exciting. It was my fourth time working with clay and it has become my favorite material to work with in therapy.

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

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.

Happy with how these turned out!

Went on a solo birthday date to a pottery session for the first time ever and it was so fun. Also why did no one tell me that your arms will be sore for the next 2 days after this?? Just got my pieces back after glazing and I love them

Hello all,

TL;DR

- the photos are of the type of plates I WANT to make. They are not mine (yet!)

- I struggle to remove bubbles from my slabs as I roll them out

- I struggle to get the slabs into a useable shape

- I struggle with the size of my rolling pin not reaching the guides I have (1/4" wood pieces)

- 1/4” seems too thick to get the results I want (see photo) - can I go smaller safely for cone 6 firing?

- when I join seams together during handbuilding they ALWAYS break somehow

- seeking tips, advice, and maybe some specific resources/blogs/videos to learn from

The Rant

I took my first ever wheel throwing course back in April and LOVED it but I really want to make some slab plates. I've had a set pinned in my Pinterest board for 15 years with the dream of one day making a similar set for myself. It became clear to me that they would be easier done with handbuilding than on the wheel given my experience level, limited time on the wheel, and just the aesthetic I want.

So I finished the class and then set off home for the summer with a fresh bag of clay (plainsman M340 because that's what the studio sells) and an idea of how much it will cost me to get them fired in the community kiln ($30 for a full rack for one firing at cone 6).

Now... Stupidly, I HAD access to a slab roller while in class. But I thought "oh how difficult can it be to roll out a slab by hand?"

Difficult. Very difficult for me.

I can't roll out a slab consistently.

Some context about my setup: I don't have a large space in my home to roll on, so I am rolling on top of my chest freezer. I was using a wooden board (MDF) on top of a bit of cabinet liner so it doesn't slide everywhere. There is no canvas or fabric on the board itself (maybe this is part of my issue? I have NO problem attaching some fabric of some sort to the board if that fixes my woes).

Bubbles I wedge using the rams head style, but I always always always have bubbles as I roll and I feel so dumb because even though I poke them as they appear, it seems like the next roll I do immediately seals them back up, so I'm like poking the same bubble over and over again until eventually it goes away (is this how it's suppose to go? I feel like everyone pokes a bubble once and gets the air out in one go...)

Slab Thickness I'm using two wooden pieces that are 1/4" as thickness guides but aesthetically it just looks way thicker than the plates I've dreamed of for 15 years.... But I'm scared to go thinner cause everyone seems to say 1/4" is the thinnest to go? Also, my rolling pin doesn't reach far enough across sometimes to remain on both wooden guides, which I imagine is a problem, so I've started using a piece of black plumbing pipe in desperation lol..... But if there is another, budget friendly option, please let me know...

Slab Shape And lastly, I can't ever seem to roll out the right shape. It's always too rectangular, or wonky. I know I should be lifting it and rotating it often, which I do try to do. But I guess I don't do it as often as I'm supposed to because it's not on fabric which means sometimes I have to peel it off and it's a bit wet?

Maybe the answer is I just need to staple canvas to this board and everything will be resolved with practice? I'm just so discouraged. I see these amazing videos of people making amazing things with slab work. I LIKE sculpting. I LOVE sculpting but my usual medium is paper clay, cardboard, and polymer. I want to get good at this.... I want to make the pretty mugs and plates!

I have slumps ready to go as soon as I figure out how to actually make a slab worth slumping....

Seams Keep Breaking Oh and another question, not so much slab rolling related, but whenever I try to build something from a template where there is a seam, my seam ALWAYS breaks. I try to cut the clay at nice angles so it fits together well, I've tried using slip, I've tried using just a bit of water because maybe I used too much slip? I always score the edges until it looks like a cat went to town. And yet, always, always, always, at some point after I've joined the edges, it will break on me. I know I must be doing it wrong somehow. It's almost like I'm somehow creating a weak/thin point or two while joining so as I go about shaping the rest of the form the seam eventually breams. Maybe I need to blend the two pieces together different? Maybe my clay is too soft still when I move on to shaping the rest of it?

So far my only successes have been a coil bowl and 1 slab bowl that magically didn't break halfway through the process.

I'm hopeful someone has some tips or even some specific videos for me to go watch. I'm so so excited to create some of my dream projects but man this learning curve without any guidance other than a couple YouTube videos is burning me out.

I've attached some photos of my dream plates (mainly the first image but I want to use a darker glaze. I know the clay body I have won't ever be dark but I want to at least use this clay to practice with first before buying more expensive (in my area) dark clay)

Threw this bowl this past weekend, pretty happy with how it came out. Intentionally left it a bit thicker after complaints about tipping on one of my previous fruit bowls. As I always say the hardest thing in pottery is knowing when to stop. Had to fight the urges to get another pull out of this guy with how thick it was. Hope you all like it! Will post follow up when it’s glazed.

My favorite glazes on the mug designs I think they look best on! All cone 10 porcelain with glazes I make. Some oxidation and some reduction.

A lemon coloured milk jug I finished making recently.

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!

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 have a bonfire 2.0 with a ceramic wool jacket around the outside and pointed some fans at the base. I fueled it with hardwood charcoal. My pyrometer read 925C ((700F) in the center and held that temp for about an hour and a half.

This clay was pure clay with no grog or anything in it so there were a few casualties but it worked much better than I hoped! My next batch will have quite a few additions to help it survive this firing process

I also raku glazed a small bowl with a homemade glaze made from slip, borax detergent, and copper carbonate (I made this from root killer (copper sulfate) and baking soda). It didn’t turn out as well as I would have hoped, the borax was still grainy and the glaze was watery but it still worked to some extent! I think I didn’t have it evenly heated when I pulled it out

Newest batch

Cone 6 with spectrum bougainvillea and a green mixed in studio! So happy with how this came out :)