Tools of the trade and stuff

Another good day spent pottering about. Some people talk of their approach to potting,whether it be London, Paris, Tokyo or New York, local markets and galleries, or making things for oneself and a few others.  The equipment and tools we use and the wheel spinning around remain constant. For me, I enjoy the lifestyle it brings and as a enthusiastic hobbyist I love all the chemistry of mixing glazes, building and firing kilns, the sometimes dramatic or subtle results. It's great just to have the chance to make something beautiful. I'm glad I don't have to do it for a living, I have a part time job for that, but it's great to have a hobby that could possibly become a means to an end or a supplementary income if I can get it to that level and that comes down to productivity and how much you push yourself, head per capita etc.etc.

So i guess I would consider myself a part time pottery enthusiast but with a passion for clay and fire and fulfillment.Something I'm sure every potter can relate to at one time or another. On to some pics with captions

Down here I work with white clay for now,so I've washed some tools after using buff and red clays and these are some of the tools I make and use often.

Soft and loose bottle forms to be raku fired for eggshell like glaze effects, or salt glazed for a more stony texture.

The weather shot

Since bricks are getting scarce I will be dismantling a kiln once more for other projects. In this frame one can see the arch is of straight brick with castable key wedge in the center .This saves cutting bricks and can be used anywhere. Below that is the flue exit and some chimney bricks sticking out. Under the flu exit is the floor bricks and under that is where the flame enters from the firebox, runs under the floor into the kiln.

Looking in from the front seeing where the flame combusts  under the floor. .In this photo I removed 5 firebricks from the  floor and at the rear is the flue exit.

In this kiln the floor bricks are still in place showing where the flame will enter and exit, and a salt port. Needs a bottom shelf so the heat will need to go under it to escape and a bagwall

I will use the bricks from the other kiln for a chimney along with a length of flue and more bricks for the door (wicket). It has a small fire box to prime the throat for the burner, 0 to 500 or 1000 deg C on wood depending on the size of the firebox, 400 to 1350+ on oil slash diesel.  I have never had the patience to fire on wood alone as after 1000 deg it gets hard work. This kiln is designed for oils and would need a big firebox as close to the kin as possible (or even under it) to run on wood alone for stoneware temperatures.

random size lumps of white clay, by tomorrow they'll be pots.

Supermarket plastic bags and polythene buckets store clay well.

Burner, fuel line,tap,hose,tape, bag of salt...check.

old vacuum blowers, check.

Props, shelves, shelf wash, fire clay, wadding, check

Fuel-tank.

Disused long-drop - self explanatory.

Walkies.

A guy showing his 4 year old daughter to surf. The sea's been pumping lately and she caught a couple of mini tsunamis like a pro. Impressive.

Now glazing, firing charts, throwing... stuff for another time. Getting late, Gotta sleep.

Clay Preparation Videos

I put up a video on YouTube here of the process I go through when making my own terracotta clay body, using nearby clay. (Apologies for the quality, the video was filmed on an old digital camera, but you get the idea!)

First, I dig up the clay, dry it, break it up with a sledgehammer and seive it through an old bed frame. Then I put it into buckets and saturate with water.

I 'blunge' it with an electric drill attachment and seive it again through a mouli seive. Then I pour off the excess water once the clay has settled. I put the clay on plaster bats to dry, then process it through a pug mill. (You could also wedge it by hand if you want). Finally, I store it in plastic bags.

Another YouTube video I like:  The Potters of San Marcos, showing a more traditional method of preparing clay from raw ingredients, by the potters of San Marcos Tlapatzola in Oaxaca, Mexico.

From the Ground Up

For the last few months, I've been working on finding and preparing my own clay bodies. Like most things, the price of clay has skyrocketed in the last few years, and knowing that I can throw as much clay as I want without worrying about the price has really freed up my creativity.

Dunedin with its ancient volcanic rock is a good source of plastic, terracotta clays - from weathered basalts up North East Valley to schists around Brighton. Each clay has its own personality, and using local clay gives a pot its own unique character, grounded in space and time. It can be refined, but is also really nice used raw with all its impurities.

Most how-to pottery books give the basics on finding clay. Road cuttings and creek beds are good places to look, sometimes local history and place names can hold clues as to where to start digging. Here I am prospecting in North East Valley, where I found a very nice terracotta:

And here I am digging behind my studio in Brighton, where I found another terracotta, also very good on its own.

Once dug, the clay needs to be tested for plasticity, shrinkage and firing range. A little minigama kiln is perfect for test-firing small amounts - and you can get some sauce dishes and beakers out of it, too. The local clay I've found so far seems to be good around Cone 02.  Here's some terracotta bowls I fired out of the first batch of NEV terracotta, with my minigama:

Minigama kiln and test pots

Processing the clay takes around two or three days. I break it up and dry it in the sun, crush it, sieve it, then put it in buckets covered with water and blunge it with an electric drill. I then pour it into a clay bath to settle, dry it on plaster bats, and  finally put it through a pug mill and into bags. (We're working on putting together a You Tube video which should show the whole thing). It's a messy business but not too hard once you get into a system. Not all that much different than recycling clay.

The next step for me will be to develop some Cone 02 glazes for my clay body, but in the meantime, the terracotta also looks gorgeous on its own.

It's perfect for flower pots and planters, which look great on a windowsill but will only get more beautiful the more they are left outside:

Rustic flowerpots

I also used it to make some amphorae and West African style pots, which I fired to Cone 02 (1120 Celsius) on Thursday:

:

Opening the gas kiln, after work at NZ Post

Some African-style pots in front of the stack, sitting on the planters, amphorae in the background.

 North East Valley terracotta amphora

Close up showing the coarse natural texture of the clay