Texture ideas please

one time i squeezed clay thru a garlic press and pressed the long clay-hairs onto the side of a cylinder. as i stretched out the cylinder many of the hairs stood up. some flew off. this made a really crazy looking pot! hard to pick up, but fastenating.

steve

steve graber

Hamster Litter works really well, and completely burns out in the firing. I have two kitchen tools that are fantastic. One is a roller with prongs coming off all the way round, and the other is evenly spaces rollers that look like plastic pizza cutters. Another fun textural thing is to dip cheesecloth in heavy slip and drap it on the pots. If you have a paper shredder, you can randomly press shreds into the surface of the pot.

Linda D in TX

I saw Byron Temple use a wavey wire cheese cutter. make the walls of the pot one inch thick. then cut veritcal facets in to the pot with the cheese cutter. a wavy wire cheese cutter makes wavy lines.

I like to make a thick slip, and use a felet knife. I apply the slip on to the pot as if I were icing on a cake. don't apply the slip too thick. I like to use a white porciline slip on dark clay. when the slip hardens place the pot on the wheel and trim the rim and base of the pot. or use a triming tool the carve designs throught the hardened slip

using a long soft bristle Chinese bamboo paint brush, and slip. paint raised designs on to the pot. you can also splash, flick, or slop silp on to the pot. I have found that the longer and softer bristles work best. experiment with different brush techniques, and different thickness of slip, to develop your own patterns.

Hi, Iv'e been experimenting for a number of years, and I've found most things burn up in the kiln, I've used things like polenta which leaves a pitted effect. I've also used gum leaves (I come from Australia) in plaster which allows me to have the leaves as positives (raised up) instead of negative (leaves an impression) in the clay I place on the plaster. The skys the limit, you could use anything you can lay your hands on, my cats don't like it when I get a glint in my eye!!