Forming Clay for a Queso Warmer

Series Summary

Making pottery is the art of creating earthenware vessels from clay. The process involves shaping a vessel, by hand or with tools, and cooking it in a kiln. Mankind has been making pottery since the times we first learned about fire. Ancient civilizations used pottery for all sorts of things, from storing oil, wine, and other foodstuffs, to holding papyrus scrolls, the organs of dead god-kings, perfumes, and various religious offerings. Because pottery is durable and lasts long after its creator is gone, it has helped us to learn about entire groups of people that we might have otherwise never known; these hand-crafted objects tell stories, not only from their complex structural designs, but also the carefully wrought stories painted on their surfaces, a sort of iconography of a time and place in history.

In this free video clip series this clay expert will be addressing the art of pottery forming and molding the clay with your hands. She will include several examples of natural hand movements you can use to create life in your pieces as well as several creative ideas for new and interesting designs no one has thought of yet. This will make each piece you make special and unique. You will learn tricks for scoring edges of clay, attaching them and even how to apply handles to a pouring bowl. Take a look at these great videos and go play in the mud!

Video Transcript

"A great project to do on a wheel is a queso warmer. Now if you make this out of stoneware this should be microwave safe and you can make queso which is cheese and salsa mixed together. Pretty standard here on the south. In the microwave get it nice and warm and then in the base you put a couple of tea lights and you put that on there and it keeps it warm throughout your entertaining. So the cheese does not get hard and you can continue scooping it. You have to have cut outs in the base that allows airflows where the candles could burn the entire time. They would go out if you don't have enough airflow down here. Now for this particular project, for this size I'm using a 1 3/4 for both pieces for each piece. So I would take my wire tool, cut a chunk of clay. Measure it, in a little more. Here is a 1 3/4. And ball that up really well and then do the same thing again. Now we are ready to throw these on the wheel."