10 Great Foot Ideas for Pottery!

hello everybody this is ann in this video today i'm going to explore an area of the pot that is easily overlooked the foot we'll start off with a few traditional methods and then venture into some more creative ideas for bottoms [Music] as a beginning potter i was taught the most basic way to finish off the bottom of a mug is to thumb it i threw this mug and let it set up overnight just covering it loosely with a piece of plastic the next day i finished off the jagged edges on the bottom by wetting my thumb and running it around the rim next i burnished the flat surface of the bottom like this so that i had a nice smooth soft professional form another thing i learned was not to leave the pot extending straight up from the bat like it was growing there as a result i decided to carve a nice lip around the bottom by notching a wooden stick so that when i ran it around the rim i got this professional looking rounded feature separating it from the bat to soften it i wet my finger and softened any little jagged bits you don't have to use a wooden tool you can use an old credit card with a profile cut along the corner or any stiff thing that you can find in this case i cut the corner of an old tube of hemorrhoid cream it works on this bottom and your bottom if needed to add another level of interest i decided to add little polka dot feet to a mug i placed a small piece of plastic wrap over a studio dedicated quarter teaspoon i then rolled four small amounts of clay into four balls one at a time i pushed the little balls into the teaspoon until i could feel the edges of a teaspoon with my finger i then pulled the plastic out of the teaspoon and turned it over i trimmed the excess clay away so i ended up with little half moon shapes to attach i turned a just stiffened up mug upside down and used a trimming spinner to mark the north south and east and west i then scored and slipped each foot into place and used a wet paint brush to seal the seams finally i wet my finger and smoothed the clay i left the mug upside down to dry [Music] i've seen some potters use faux feet i thought i'd give that a try i started by making four little polka dot feet like the last one but this time using the 1 8 teaspoon i threw a mug and trimmed a recessed rim so that appears like it's hovering off the ground i used a trimming spinner to mark the north south east and west i scored the recessed part of the mug on each mark back to the polka dots i lopped a quarter of the top off at an angle like so i scored and slipped the lopped area and fit the feet against the scored areas of the mug so they look like feet sticking out on each side [Music] to put a little fun on these feet i pushed the needle tool against the clay making two parallel lines spaced evenly apart i then rounded the edges like so to create little feet [Music] i call them faux pas huh get it [Music] another idea for a foot is to use a mold i found this knitted pattern candy mold that i thought might be fun i rolled a thick soft clay coil and laid it over the long mold i then pushed it straight down into the mold first with my hands and then with a rolling pin [Music] i flipped it over and peeled the mold off the clay i cut off the excess clay and softened the edges with a wet paint brush [Music] next i turned over a stiffened mug and cleaned up the edge and bottom and scored it around the edge i then scored and slipped the molded clay and attached it to the edge along the flat bottom of the mug [Music] [Music] again i used a wet paintbrush to seal the two together to me it looks like a nice set of teeth but no cavities for this next foot i used a decorative wooden star rosette that i found at the hardware store i rolled out a quarter inch slab wider than the rosette i then placed a piece of plastic wrap over the wooden star i pressed the clay over the mold and pressed straight down to get a nice impression first with my hands and then the rolling pin i took the clay off the mold and peeled off the plastic i trimmed the excess clay away from the star and softened the edges [Music] the star was just a little shorter than the diameter of the mug bottom that i wanted to attach it to so i extruded a small coil and attached it around the star and sealed the edges with a paintbrush this stuck to my work surface so i wired it off then i scored slipped and attached it to the bottom of the mug [Music] debbie lamborn put these cool patterns on her mug bottoms and it inspired me to try using a wiggle wire [Music] the wiggle wire is like a regular wire except it's crimped i threw a mug a little thicker on the bottom and when the clay was soft i slid the wire under the mug while wiggling it from side to side i got this really cool pattern [Music] when the mug stiffened up i centered it on the wheel and softened the edge with a wet finger it's fun to experiment with the wiggle wire patterns if you anchor one edge of the wire in place and pull the other end around under the mug you'll create a rounded pattern like this i still can't quite figure out how debbie created her amazing pattern but i'll keep practicing my wiggle technique for the next foot i had an idea to use an old-fashioned bottle opener also called a church key remember when people had to open their beers with these things i threw a bowl and waited until it was just shy of leather hard before trimming i used the trimming spinner tool to mark the foot ring into thirds i then use the church key to press down towards the front and rock it back towards the body of the bowl [Music] i used a wet paint brush to seal the seam between the clay and the body to smooth the clay of the little petals and to soften and smooth the hard edges along the ring [Music] this next foot was inspired by this berry bowl by eve behar scotty how you throw this particular bowl is very important to get the profile just right i threw it leaving a lot of clay at the bottom for trimming for the profile i threw it so that it has a flared body a cinched area about a half inch from the bottom and then i flared the foot back out under that once the bowl dried until it was leather hard i began trimming it out i used a wet finger to round the very edge of the foot i then used the trimming spinner tool to mark the foot ring into thirds i then used a ruler to mark a half inch on either side of the original mark [Music] i then used the top of a gatorade bottle to mark a semi-circle between the marks i used a needle tool to cut them out [Music] i then wet my fingers and cleaned up the jagged edges softened the edges and smooth the clay this is a decorative foot and a great foot to use with a colander or a berry bowl when you need water to flow out finally this next really cool foot was inspired by this bowl by pamela seegers [Music] i threw a bowl with a wider than usual foot and let it dry the leather hard i began by marking it out and then trimmed a foot ring within a foot ring like so i used a narrow trim tool to just recess the center of the bowl i then trimmed out the area between the rings [Music] i used my wet finger to round off the inner foot ring and smooth the clay i did the same thing to the outer foot ring i used a red rib to smooth the inner area between the two rings next i found two pins with sleek round bottoms of different sizes i randomly pushed the ends into the clay to create this great pebbled surface texture that to me look like a piece of swiss cheese [Music] now i painted a little mouse in the center of the cheese but there's a lot of creative ways to go with this i hope this video inspires you to add a little pizzazz to that often troublesome part of your bowl the foot if you enjoyed our video we'd really appreciate if you'd hit the like button and subscribe also leave a comment below on topics you'd like to see us cover see you next time in the studio you

Channel: Little Street Pottery

Views: 23,920

Rating: 4.9676113 out of 5

Keywords: ann ruel, little street pottery, ann rule, free pottery, pottery ideas, pottery lessons, ceramic art

Id: xjgbQl9LYzg

Length: 14min 21sec (861 seconds)

Published: Sat May 22 2021