How to Make Clay Bird Baths

Creative types, shape a shallow bird bath bowl and pedestal from clay.

One of the loveliest sights is watching birds frolic at the bird bath. Hunching low into the water, they flutter their wings feverishly in an attempt to wash their feathers. Add to that scene a little dappled sunlight and this backyard tableau is magical. If you love birds and like working with your hands, creating a clay bird bath from a lump of clay is easy and fun.

Things You'll Need

• 25-lb.bag terra cotta clay
• Rubber kidney ceramic tool
• Paring knife
• Staple gun
• Ruler
• 12-by-12-inch piece of canvas
• 12-inch diameter shallow bowl, 2 to 3 inches deep
• 1 3/4-inch-wide boar's hair paint brush
• Pail
• Water
• Plastic sheeting
• 1-by-2-inch piece of chamois
• Needle tool
• Kiln
• Epoxy paint

Instructions

1. Build the basin. Staple a 12-by-12-inch square of canvas to a clean, flat, wood work surface. Set the 12-inch diameter bowl on the work surface next to the canvas. Open the bag of clay, pull some clay off and roll out a 3/8-inch coil on the canvas (coils are thinly rolled-out strands of clay). Keep the coil the same diameter from end to end and make it about 8 inches long.

2. Wind the clay around itself, starting at one end of one of the coils, to form a flat clay coiled pancake. Place this coiled pancake in the middle of the 12-inch bowl. Roll another coil just like the first one, but this time, join it to the top end of the first coil, fusing the two coils together and continuing to follow the shape of the inside of the bowl. While holding the clay in place with one hand, use the rubber kidney spatula to stroke it over the clay coils to smooth out the ridges. Eventually, none of the lines from the coils will show and the inside will be smooth.

3. Continue rolling coils and adding them to the clay in the inside of the 12-inch bowl until the clay coils eventually reach the top inside rim of the bowl. Make sure all the ridges have been smoothed out. Set the bowl aside to let the clay start to dry. Drape thin plastic over it to slow drying.

4. Create the pedestal using the same coil method, except this time there will be nothing to use as the form to lay the clay coils against. The pedestal will be a 6-inch-high vase shape with an open bottom to it.

5. Roll out a coil and make a circle of clay 6 inches in diameter. There is nothing in the center of the coil. Start adding on coils on top of this first one until a 1-inch high wall is formed. Put one hand inside the wall and brace the inside wall while stroking the rubber kidney against the outside of the coils to blend them together until they are smooth.

6. Continue adding coils and blending them together. Create a 6-inch-tall concave profile vase. Stand back periodically and study the profile. Decide how far to come in. Don't decrease the inner diameter of the vase any more than 4 1/2 inches across. Set the finished vase aside and wrap thin plastic over it. Wait for two to three days for the clay bowl and vase to reach a leather-hard state in which they can hold their shapes.

7. Slide the leather-hard clay bowl out of the form. Hold one hand inside the shallow clay bowl while stroking the outside of the bowl with the rubber kidney to smooth the coil ridges out. Wet the clay a little by dipping the rubber kidney in water and rubbing it over the clay to lubricate and soften it. Continue smoothing. Smooth the rim by dipping the chamois in water and rubbing it across the rim.

8. Carefully turn the finished clay bowl over and lay it rim down on the canvas. Attach the top of the vase to the bottom side of the shallow bowl. Brush water where the two clay forms meet, to make it more pliable. Roll out a coil and lay it all the way around where the rim is joined to the bottom of the bowl. Gently blend it into the bottom of the bowl and the top of the vase.

9. Set the bowl and pedestal upright. Cover loosely with thin plastic and let the clay dry out slowly for a week to two weeks. When bone-dry, fire the clay bird bath in a kiln. When the pedestal comes out of the kiln, paint the inside of the shallow basin with a colorful epoxy paint to the seal the porous clay.

Tips & Warnings

• A rubber kidney is a kidney-shaped ceramic tool specially made for fusing coils together.

• Consider painting decorative patterns on the pedestal with different colors of epoxy paint.

• If you're short on time and/or dexterity, you can set a 12-inch terracotta drain tray atop an inverted 12-inch flower put, glue the pieces together and create an instant bird bath.

References

• JH Pottery: How to Make a Coil Pot