Once bisqued I cover it with manganses dioxide and rub it off. The final
>product has a real organic look and feel to it
>
>Has anybody got any other suggestions for adding texture to a thrown pot?
I don't have any texturing ideas for you, but please be careful with the manganese dioxide. Exposure to manganese fumes during firing builds up over time and can result in Parkinson's disease-like symptoms. I don't recall the name, but one well known potter is believed to have died from this. Fire only in a well ventilated area.
i've been throwing pots with texture from only the inside for about 15 years now. sometime way back a potter told me there are two primary throwing styles
- eastern and western. western shapes the outside, eastern shapes the inside. (not sure on accuracy, but there are ALOT of people shaping only from the inside).
the classic vase shape - i believe - is a natural result of shaping from only the inside. the clay springs back to a certain location when stretched from the inside. classic greek shapes are also natural forms from inside throwing. high shoulder pots are "easy" this way.
heavy bottom pots mean you'll have to concentrate more in the cylinder lift. get that bottom corner thin to start with. and exagerate the diameter at the bottom - go bigger. too small a foot tends to happen, and the clay stays thick there. also, it's easy to accidently kick the walls off the foundation and collapse a pot from inside stretching so i go softly the first few inches off the floor, then push harder & harder toward the top. as the pots reaches "done" i go back and work the floor corners a bit more. on larger pots i'll shape till the pot kinda sags (i like this affect lately) leave it sit for a bit to stiffen, then stretch some more. i can get huge baloon shapes and ultra thin walls. alot of times the applied texture to the outside even works it's way to the inside when the walls get real thin. on occastion i deliberately strect till the walls blow out so i can always understand where "too thin" is.
some level of trimming can occur after throwing. everyone wants to retain texture all over - to the detriment of the overall shape of the pot - but try to trim a bit anyway. texture's cool but don't forget basic shape.
meanwhile it's a BLAST throwing pots from the inside with texture! i used rollers to apply texture. paint rollers, pastry cutters, some pizza cutters, the wall papper guys use some roller with gear teeth that pepper a pot and can make it look like woven rope. toy truck tires are awsum to use. old saw blades, tupperware cake decorating tools, dentist tools, forks from the kitchen.
i talked my old company into buying a rapid prototype machine that can "print"
3D parts from the computer screen. the laser additive process makes parts to tight tolerances (+/- .005 inches) and is very useful in the engineering & manufacturing world. it ALSO helped me make TONS of other texture tools that i couldn't have done otherwise. drop me a line and i'll gladly send you a JPG file of texture tools i've used. the result on pots are beautiful! an added result is glazes stick very well and i seldom have glaze runoff problems.
I'd love to get that jpg showing your texturing tools. I want to reply online. Your work is awesome and varied. Would you share how you textured that Japanese lantern? And your son's mermaid is an impressive sculpture. I have to assume he's an adult who's been doing art for a while?
I appreciate Uncle John's starting this texture thread. I'll try the sodium silicate solution and also the internal stretching and forming. Lana Wilson was at the 2003 NCECA Conference. Her texturing was fascinating. Her old book isn't presently available. The Joachim Chavarria is the best one I've found.
thanks for the kind words - i sent you some JPG's of the tools i use. aside from the "found" tools i use SolidWorks design software to make the other unusual tools. helical gears are fun to use - but SO expensive!
the japanese lanter was made using alot of little clay bricks. it's an amusing process and i've used it to make the lantern, bird baths, planters, etc. i started the technique after i got board making a coil pot in a pottery class. i made a log cabin instead. after a few log cabins i decided to squash the logs and cut them to make a stone brick house instead. after seeing the result that was coming from the process i just made whatever struck me at the time using the brick layer method.
my step kid is a grown man - mostly good at drawing but dabbles in clay sometimes. it sure hurts to see someone take to clay so easily, do so well at it like he does, yet he doesn't want to do any clay work or work at it much at all.
i've yet to try the silicate method mentioned, as well as "dusting" of a pot like i've also heard. i hear if you 'dust" a pot with dry clay powder & stretch the pot out you'll also get a crack apearance from the dust stretching out and fresh clay below getting exposed.
It was Hans Coper who died from amyothropic lateral sclerosis which was, as you say, as a result of working with manganese - not only the firing
- he achieved beautiful effects by working back into manganese slips and oxides, without a mask. At the same time, though, Lucie Rie, also a god in the ceramic world, lived to the grand old age of 93; she worked closely with Coper for many years, and used manganese also to a great extent. I think you should stiil be able to find an article by jane Watkins who suffers from Parkinsons on her experience as a probable result of manganese poisoning - it's frightening but should be read. You should find it at
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've also used the hot air gun on the rim and it does work well. Got the method from a descriptions of John lawson's method in Josie Warshaw's Complete Practical Potter pushing out with a rounded end stick in concentric spirals.
Steve I've seen an article on a Potter who uses a similar technique; dusts the outside with Kaolin, then stretches it from the inside. The results are very impressive.
> I've also used the hot air gun on the rim and it does work well. Got the> method from a descriptions of John lawson's method in Josie Warshaw's> Complete Practical Potter pushing out with a rounded end stick in > concentric spirals.>
Yuk, I just bought some manganese the other day, will be very careful now, thanks :o)
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