Forming Clay for a Luminary

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 really good, fun project to do on the wheel is to make a luminary. And this one is just bisqued, it hasn't been glazed yet. But basically, you can cut anything out that you want. Any shape, form, whatever. Leave a little bit of room down here so that you can put a candle in there, and as it glows, you'll see that form but the wax won't pour out the bottom of the luminary. Now, you can do these in any size. I mean, you can start at three quarters of a pound and go up to luminary big enough for a large outdoor candle. Whatever you want to do. In this case, I'm going to use about a pound and a half to make one that's a little bigger than a mug. I find that to be a nice household size. So you want to weigh out your clay to the weight that you're looking for and once you've got it weighed, you want to pat it into as round of a ball as possible and now you're ready to go throw on the wheel."