Popular Pottery Techniques
Capsule Explanations of Basic Handbuilding And Throwing Methods
Pinching yourself differentiating between soft slab and hard slab? Coiling your brains around throwing and moulding? Find out what some of these pottery terms mean.
Within the two broad methods of handbuilding and wheel throwing, there are several different ways to create pottery. Popular techniques include:
Handbuilding:
- Pinching - Pinching is one of the oldest, simplest, and most direct ways of shaping clay. Pinch Pots are created by patiently and steadily poking, pinching and pulling a lump of clay into shape. Lumps are evened out by applying steady pressure and tears are cut away.
- Coiling - Coiled Pots are created by gradually stacking and joining “snakes” of clay on top of one another. If the clay is very soft and moist, coils can be added directly, but if the clay is relatively dry, contact surfaces need to be scored and slipped to ensure a strong join.
- Press Moulding - Soft slabs or coils are pressed into concave moulds. The inside of the form is then trimmed and decorated and the piece is left to dry until it is stiff enough to support its own shape and weight. It is then popped out of the mould for the exterior surface to be decorated and for finishing touches to be added.
- Slump Moulding - The mirror image of press moulding. Soft slabs or coils are laid over convex moulds. The outside of the form is then trimmed and decorated and the piece is popped off the mould before it gets too dry that it shrinks around the mould. If texture is desired on the interior surface, the soft slab should be textured before it is laid over the mould. Interior surface decoration can be performed after unmoulding.
- Slip Moulding - Clay slip is poured into multi-part plaster slip moulds. Excess slip is poured out after a certain period of time. Upon unmoulding, seams are reinforced with coils if necessary. The piece is then trimmed and decorated.
- Soft Slab - Soft slabs are made from clay that is very moist and plastic. Soft slabs can either be rolled out to a uniform thickness or created by throwing a clay disc with random textures at a smooth work surface at an oblique angle a couple of times. The slabs, or pieces cut from them, are then quickly shaped into, over or around moulds or around crumpled paper. Scoring and slipping may be necessary on joins as the piece dries out.
- Hard Slab - When soft slab that has been rolled out is allowed to dry until it is leatherhard, it becomes hard slab. Pieces cut from this relatively stiff clay are joined by scoring and slipping to make geometric, precise work such as boxes.
Wheel Throwing:
- Throwing directly on the wheel head or on a bat - This is possibly the most common wheel throwing practice in Western studios currently where the emphasis is on creating one-offs. A wedged piece of clay is centered, coned and then thrown into a symmetrical, circular shape, generally a cylinder or bowl. It is then cut off the wheel head and allowed to dry until it is leatherhard, then turned upside down and returned to the wheel head to be trimmed. Only one piece may be thrown from one piece of clay.
- Throwing off the hump - More common among production potters creating limited designs in volume runs. A large lump of clay is attached to the wheel head and several pieces are thrown in quick succession from it. Only as much clay as is needed to make each individual piece is centered, coned and thrown from the top of the lump at any one time. This requires a practiced hand and a good eye, especially when cutting the finished piece off the hump. Clay is continually added to the mass on the wheel head as it is used up.
Many potters combine several of the above techniques in creating their pieces. For instance, in How To Throw a Piggy Bank, several wheel thrown pieces are altered by cutting before being joined together. Handbuilt elements are also added.
Experiment and find the techniques that you enjoy the most, then combine them to create your dream piece.
Curious for more? Please visit the article archives and e-mail me with your questions.
The copyright of the article Popular Pottery Techniques in Pottery is owned by Jennifer Yap. Permission to republish Popular Pottery Techniques must be granted by the author in writing.
