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Summary: Before pulling clay into a mug handle the first step is to form it into a cone shape. Learn tips on how to do this and why from a clay pottery expert in this free video clip.
Chris Cook received a BFA in ceramics and sculpture from Southern Oregon University where he studied raku, studio ceramics, stoneware, and various firing techniques under Jim Romberg....read more
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!
"Alright, so now we're going to go ahead and put a handle on this guy here. And what you want to start off with, a nice piece of clay about a pound and a half. What you're going to need, you're going to need your pound of clay and your needle tool for cutting. So what you want to start off with is you're going to take your clay, you want to make it into a cone; make it as much into a cone as possible. This technique is called "pulling the handle". You get the cone going, get it right up like that, so it's all like this. And what we're going to do is we're going to get it nice and wet, and we're going to pull it out, and pull it, and pull it. And you can describe it almost like a bar of soap slipping out of your hand, kind of like a, you've just got to get a feel for it, it's going to be kind of like soap slipping out of your hand. And you just slowly pull out that handle, slowly pull it until you find it the consistency that you want, and then you're going to put it on that mug."
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