Piecing Textures for Great Pottery - NEW TECHNIQUE!

Hi everybody, this is Anne. You never know where the next inspiration for a project will come from. This time, I found inspiration while watching people construct quilts from fabric scraps. I wondered if I could piece clay together in a systematic way as well. In this video, I'll show you three projects using unique piecing techniques to create beautiful functional pottery. Let's see if we can join individual clay balls to make a bowl. I figured that I might have better success if I anchored them together on the same surface, so I rolled a thin 1 1⁄8 inch slab and placed it on a piece of plastic wrap. I traced the area that I'll be working, but I didn't cut it out yet. I used a styrofoam half sphere as my template and traced around it. Now I need to make my coil balls. I made sure to make different sizes and shapes. I started getting a little more creative with them by coiling and pinching them. Now all I had to do was wet the surface and stick them down with a little pressure beside each other so they stuck to the slab and to themselves. I tried to make sure to have a nice variety of shapes and sizes mixed together evenly across the space. I found that a wet paintbrush is a good tool to apply the water to get into some of the tighter spaces. Now that's a good start. I love the shadows and textures that are being produced. Now I can use my finger to lightly press the balls tighter to the surface to be assured of a good connection without destroying the texture. For even more texture, I had this ballpoint pen shell that I like to use. I randomly chose areas with smoother surfaces and enhanced them with both sides of the pen. I also took my needle tool and thought a little straight line texture would add variety to all the roundness. They have a bit of a Louise Nevelson assemblage look, don't they? As I'm just demonstrating for you, instead of finishing out the entire space, I thought I'd just go ahead and cut this one a smaller size. Wow, I'm really liking that dynamic surface. Here's one I did earlier where I did finish out that bigger circle and draped it inside a bigger styrofoam half sphere. The inside is the smooth 1 1⁄8 inch slab and the outside is the beautiful texture encircled by a coil to create a rim. To finish, I brushed black underglaze over the texture and wiped it back. I didn't add any more glaze to that side. I then glazed on the inside white as it's the most dramatic with the black. Let's try a more methodical architectural pattern. Again, I started with a 1⁄8 inch slab on a piece of plastic wrap. I used this L-square ruler to make sure the clay was squared up on at least one end. Now I'll be making little bricks the shape of this rectangular wooden stick. I set the stick on the squared up end of the slab, wide side down, and cut with a razor cutter along its edge. I continued doing this across the entire piece and I removed any remaining dregs. Now I turned the slab sideways. With the stick turned short side down, I again started to cut along the side of the stick continuing this across the entire slab. And there are my bricks. I moved those to the side. I rolled out another 1⁄8 inch slab, placed it on a piece of plastic wrap, and squared up one of the sides. Now it's time to build our pattern. I wet the surface and stuck the first brick horizontally along the corner. Working top to bottom, I wet the clay under the first brick and placed the second brick vertically in the center of the first brick. I continued this pattern down the first row. For the second row, this time I placed bricks horizontally along the vertical bricks of the first row all the way down to make sure they're straight. I then fit more blocks vertically in between tight to the bricks around it. I continued doing this pattern all the way across the slab. Now I have a really nice textured slab to drape form with. Now here's one I created earlier where I wrapped it around and joined it at the seam. I then cut arches from the bottom of the foot and attached a slab plus little handles along the sides. You can see that the inside is that smooth 1⁄8 inch slab that we attached the bricks to. I brushed black underglaze over the texture and wiped it back, then covered it with the eggshell glaze. I covered the rim and foot border with black underglaze and topped it with clear glaze. I fired it to cone 5 with a 6-minute hold. For the next project, I thought this technique would look great on a butterfly basket design we made in a previous video. I found the templates for it, but will be altering the instructions a bit to accommodate the pieced slab on that arched template. I cut all the pieces out using a ¼ inch slab except that arched piece. I cut that one into a 1⁄8 inch depth. For the texture on my basket, I created these texture plates, some with found items in my craft drawers and others with plants from around my house. This one is made from ribbons and cheesecloth that has been pulled apart and then slipped over. I found some ferns and other clippings to embed in this slab. I found another nice shrub branch for this plate. To capture the texture, I simply laid an 1⁄8 inch slab over it and worked it with my fingers down into the texture starting in the center and working my way out. Now here's the texture that that gives you. I made another 1⁄8 inch slab and created this from the second texture plate. I did the same thing with the third texture plate. Now I traced around my original arched template and cut out a duplicate. I divided it into thirds like this and cut it apart. This will become my pattern for piecing. I laid each section over a different slab and cut them out. I fit them down on the other 1⁄8 inch slab to make sure they fit. I scored and wet each piece and attached them to the original 1⁄8 inch slab. Ideally, I would make two of these. I began to construct the piece using the two smaller panels along each side of the base in the slots. I curved the pieced side and attached it along the back and sides of the base. Now here's how you would attach the second side. Now here's one I finished earlier. To finish it, I brushed baby blue and a little black underglaze over the texture and wiped it back. I glazed the inside curved sections with white glaze and the flat sides with Amaco Sky Celadon. Piecing these textured pieces can take texturing slabs to a whole new level. It might take a little practice, but it's easy once you get the hang of it. Thanks to the newest members of our Little Street Pottery Research Facility team. 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