Thursday 7 September 2017

Free Pottery Lessons! Roll up Roll up.

Blogs are a great way of gaining what essentially are
Free Pottery Lessons!
When I started to Learn back in the 1970's
there was very little in the way of free help
and advice.
I'm predominately self taught, from books from the Library
and hours and hours sat at my Potters Wheel.
So here is a small Free lesson on making mugs with a company Logo

Before You start, Make sure your throwing is up to scratch
there is nothing worse*  than a poorly throw mug.
Throw a few mugs and cut them in half to make sure
the base and wall are even or not too thick.
Trust me this will give you more confidence about your pots.

* ( There are lots of things worse than a poorly thrown mug
but I mean in the context of this blog post )

 Stamps can be ordered from any rubber stamp company
I use
Stamps Direct
www.stampsdirect.co.uk
Roll out your clay and leave it for a few hours
trying to press a stamp into wet clay doesn't work so well
it tends to clog up the stamp.
leaving it to dry gives for a much crisper impression!


Have the discussion with your customer as to where the stamp should be
1. to the left of the handle
2. to the right of the handle
3. opposite the handle
Once you have established your position, cut out your stamp
mark it's position on the pot
I score both the pot and the back of the stamp
and apply plenty of slip to the back of the stamp
place the stamp in position and push it on to the pot
pushing from the centre outwards
smooth off the outer edge with a damp sponge.

when you have done them all cover them in plastic
and allow the pot to dry slightly over night covered in plastic.

The pots should still be leather hard but firm enough to handle.
Dip the pot in slip and leave to dry for a few days.

 when dry enough scrape away the slip to reveal the design


Repeat


Biscuit Fire Glaze and re fire

if you've done a good job
your customer will put a picture up 
on social media within hours of receiving them
showing how much they love them
Job Done!


August/September is harvest time
These Harvest jugs make great wedding gifts
tis the season.

I couldn't resist sharing these two Bentleys
we saw parked up in Clevedon last Sunday


And Now I've made a start on a new exciting project
to be completed before the month is out!

Watch this space.
I love a challenge and a new client.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your informative post! One tip I might add is to try to get away from using rubber stamps as they are very limited as far as fine detail which just won’t work with some designs. Rather, try to find a company that can create a stamp using their laser machine cutting into acrylic. This technology allows for amazing detail, and the cost is not that much more than a rubber stamp. Best wishes from Oregon!

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