Pottery Techniques

Pottery Techniques: handcrafted oval bowl

Alright, I finally got to make one of my favorite shapes.  Hopefully, it will come out of the kiln in time for gallery night, so far I’m very excited about the results.  I did some clay tests and now I’ve switched over to B-Mix which, has given me results that I really enjoy.  I started off with a 6lb ball of clay and threw a large enclosed dome shape.   It is pretty much like making a bottle form but enclosing the neck completely.  I had a little extra clay at the top so I flattened it down and used the blunt end of the wooden modeling tool (from basic pottery tool kit) to add detail while i was slowly rotating the form on the pottery wheel.  I had to wait until the next day for the piece to dry, yet a iittle tacky to cut the piece in half vertically.  I held the wire tool tightly and gently pulled the wire tool from the top all the way down to the base.  While the piece dried some more I threw a donut shape foot with a little over a pound of clay and waited for that to set up as well.  Later in the morning I attached the two halves at the base together and added the foot ring.  Once the foot and bowl dried to about leather hard, I added another wheel thrown donut for the lip of my piece.  As the piece dried, I begin pinching the lip to thin out the clay and shape the wavy top.  Lastly, I added a thin coil along the seam of the lip and bowl to add a strong horizontal line to accentuate the bowls length.  I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I do!