Lili Krakowski on tue 19 sep 06
1. Handles. Like Lynn I feel that pulling handles, countless, endless
handles, is the way to perfect handle making. ON THE OTHER hand[dle]
arthritis has curtailed my ability to do it excellently well, so I avoid
handles. I am practicing doing it left handed.
But I learned a variant handle pulling technique in Montreal, which works
well. Take a lump of clay and smack it against a board till you have a
wedge-shaped "sausage" fatter at one end than the other. Rock and roll the
sausage on your board (canvas covered helps) till sausage is about where you
want the handle to be. Now. Wet the canvas (for slippage) hold the top
(fat part) of sausage with one hand, and with the other (your pulling hand),
using a wet chamois across/over the handle, "ride" that chamois down
towards the bottom of the handle. Apply slight pressure so that the clay is
constricted. The handle will form very much as though pulled. After each
pull, lift the handle from the fat end, and add some water to the board.
Otherwise the handle will end up sticking.
2. Trimming feet. No one seems to have mentioned two good alternate
methods of trimming feet...besides Ms Priddy's " trimming on the wheel" as
finale for throwing.
If the bottom is the proper thickness, and the pot is just short of leather
hard, hold the pot and ROLL is on what would be the foot rim. The clay at
the "heel" will compact, and there will be a lip formed--BUT then the bottom
is easily smoothed with a rib or similar. I learned this from Beth Molaro,
who called it an "Archie Brae foot". Assume someone at AB thought it up.
Try hand trimming a pot, Taylor. Invert the pot and CARVE the foot. You
can get elaborate-- feet as elegant as on old bathtubs-- or you can just
make three "bumps" (something I use on small bowls--very handy for not
getting water in foot rim in dishwasher, also elevates hot pots from surface
they are set on. It is a great deal of fun to do this, and you can design
yourself fun tools to do it with.
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
| |
|
