Saturday, March 27, 2010

Exploration in Clay

We have been exploring the properties of clay through building pinch pots, coil pots, and slab work. There are many ways to add textures to our work with a variety of tools and stamps. There is no limit to our creativity!

A great deal of patience is involved in completing a piece of pottery. After shaping the wet clay we let it dry for a day or two until it is considered "leather hard". At this point we can carve it and polish it. Then we must let it dry until the gray colored wet clay becomes "bone dry" and turns white. This can take a week or two depending on the humidity and temperature. The pots are very fragile at this point until they are fired in a kiln for the first time.

The Solla family of Cold Springs Studio (Cold Springs Road in Jacksonville) will be firing our work for us. Once it is fired we will glaze our pots and then they will be fired again.

















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