Constructing and Deconstructing Functional Ware with Elaine Pinkernell

[Music] we are going to be making char paper pots so everybody should have one of these so what we're doing today is making something that looks like this and everything that I do is made with a char paper template roofing paper watch our paper at Home Depot you can buy a great big roll of it for about twenty-five dollars you know you and your ten close friends can share it for a long time but if you want to get it there's 15 pound weight and there's 30 pound weight don't get the 30 pound weight you have to be able to do this with it easily I am gonna do the old Rip Torn method to make something that looks like this you'll see that a lot of my pots have more than one color of clay so to make that work you need to make sure they have almost the same shrinkage and then you then you go well how do I know that you can get just about anything online these days so like Laguna clays clay planet clays all they're shrinkages are online if you can't find a shrinkage there's always the test test test you know slap some together see if it comes apart we're using cone ten clays today it works at any temperature low fire mid range cone 10 these are fired this is fired two cone six yes I use cone 10 clays at cone six and then people freak out like oh it's not very fun it's gonna use well to solve that issue what I do is I take like I dip you know I do it first I'll take just the regular off-the-shelf pint of Western clear and I'll do a paintbrush full of the clear in the bottom and then I'll use whatever glaze and guess what it works doesn't see it works for me I have been doing this for several years now I have yet to have one person call and go your mug leaked on me so I figured so far so good I use them at home all the time no I just do it on the bottom yeah clear yeah but the but the glaze is absolutely are come six come five six glazes no you don't if it was a content glaze this would look like chalk good fired it goes six so let's get going everybody's got a template here slabs are over here these are quarter-inch slabs you should have enough to have this on both these on there okay so move your mud to the left when you first cut it out I like to get rid of the canvas texture just by using one of these ribs and you know if you're not a tool hug like I am it works just by rubbing it with your hand that's the cheap way the only tool that you really need is something to cut with because I have enough to share I have six of these little knives to share for people that don't have any tools if you see when laying around let me know because I had seven little fast doorstop so I am going to and you know the other thing is everybody template looks exactly the same get your name on them okay and put a note on there to remind you like I wrote a quarter-inch and an arrow and a quarter-inch on it and an arrow because when you cut the clay out you're gonna cut it quarter inch bigger here quarter inch bigger on one side okay that's going to be your seam allowance and if you're thinking about it like joining things like clothing the seam allowance is that extra part on the inside that joins it okay so I'm going to cut out my slab saving that extra part oops yeah please interrupt me with any questions and if you can't see back there you know bring your chair up you'll use your scrap so keep them so it looks like this okay when you cut it out got that the nice thing about hand building is if you have a little hole or an irregularity in your clay you get to just shove some clay on there and what luck you go in it's a little boogers here that didn't quite get rolled out nicely so there I go cuz I'm any anybody here already made a mug with me at one point just one Wow okay well you're the expert so if I'm helping somebody else she's the one to quiz all right so here's my slab I always like to soften the rim by just a finger full of water and if you put your hand your finger perpendicular to that edge OOP that's going to fall apart there okay I fixed another little split you know that's a nice thing it seems like hand-building there's lots of different ways you can fix something that's about to fall apart alright now the scary part ripping it up now keep it aligned the way you ripped it up otherwise it's pretty hard to get it back together but there is always a way somebody will probably not be able to get it back together so I'm just going to take one piece at a time and start texturing it stay away from the top 1/2 inch of the slab when you're texturing because your mouth is going to be there and it ends up getting too thin it's just stay away from the top half inch you end up with a nice tidy rim that way so this is where I like to use different colors of play we're using Bravo buff and cinnamon and they both shrink the same I didn't seem to be able to find some little scraps of Bravo buffer around so maybe share with a neighbor but there's some t2 up there that'll work too and I'm going to do I tend to like to start it with some sort of big symbol here and then go from there so you really want to make it paper thin you don't want a quarter inch on top of a quarter inch or it's just too bulky so I am also going to rip around the edge because anything that might you know my work is about being texture like and handmade paper like so I love it when a ripped edge and you do the wipe off with glaze and whenever there's a ripped edge it catches the glaze and emphasizes it so I tend to rip things a lot get your aggressions out you know okay and then I take a stamp if your clay is getting stiffer you can use use a little bit of water I plant it on there and then you really seal it on there by doing your stamp okay so it looks like that I've stayed away from the top half inch and I like this is my signature stamp and it tends to look like it's in keeping with all the texture in my pot so I tend to use it in a repeating stamp way but you all have to figure out how you're going to sign your pot when you're done maybe you can you can carefully turn it over and sign it or whichever way you like to sign it you're going to have to some people sign it on the tail of their of the of the handle whatever you like so here is a you know a huge range of texture tools that I've brought to share driftwood wheels from you know kids toy sets well there's my other knife okay lots and lots of things you can make yourself by pressing wads of clay into something and bisque firing it you always just this fire do not high fire otherwise they'll stick this one's fun that's from a light bulb on and off chain lots of hamhock bones I have many of these because I made so much soot so in any case you can see the list goes on and then there's all these you know wonderful like melon bags and onion bags which you're going to need one of these for okay cuz you roll this into the clay I have a whole two of them to share so we'll just have to make do and then I have these fancy ones which actually are fabric wood blocks you know batik yes in fabric printing dyeing and you have to use cornstarch on these so they don't stick so what you do is you're just going to get it like that you can see the white residue is from the last time I used it and it will burn out the the cornstarch burns out so then you get to do things like you know walk around and see things in terms of texture and baby shoes are really nice because they have good you know the the things are the thread isn't torn worn down and they're nice and close together so this makes a great stamp I made this one in the last workshop just by pressing it into this generally there's some good tinnies around here that you can make some stamps off of and then there's you know things like this there's a million tools you can buy at clay planet for texture so have yourself a party with that let me finish by using a piece of driftwood then you start going I want this stamp and you misplace it I know it was here I saw I can't tell you much time I've spent my studio looking for that one stamp when I have like 500 then you you know tell yourselves just let go cast it to the wind and the next time you walk in you're looking for that damn stamp I have this one tanbark you know landscaping stuff I had this one piece of like the mythical perfect piece of tanbark I still look yet every time there's tanbark I look to find that replacement it looked like this perfect wing it was the you know you know I'm sure you know if you've had tools that are the perfect tool and you think my work is never going to be as good as when I had the wing piece of 10 bark okay what and then the last one I'm going to do a fancy one little cornstarch this one you do have to use one of these okay and just slowly roll it in so I just tend to start with the flat side and then I peel off just peel up a corner to see if you got a good texture the thing you do not want to do is peel the whole thing off and go oh it's not you know not deep enough and then sit there and try to get no just no throw it away throw it away and go cut out a new slab the right size new piece yeah yeah yeah there you go I'm riskier I just look at one because I generally at this point know what it feels like if it's decent enough well that's my handle okay now we're going to put the this back together so you've got this you know a lot of people kind of lose track of how to do this so I say start with the ones with the top edge first okay that you can keep your bearings so I start at the right flip it over on the left okay so I line up at the very top and the very left okay and then take the next piece overlap it about an eighth inch flush with the top keep going across the top and there I've gone all the way across now what I saw happened in the last workshop is a lot of people were just really vigorous over lappers so they didn't have anything left for an overhang it's key to have some overhangs okay so make sure that you end up with that overhang before you continue so now I'm going to go across the bottom and you notice if your clays is soft right out of the bag you don't have to score or use I never ever ever you slip ever sometimes if if I'm working slowly and nice things have stiffened up I'll just use a paintbrush full of water that's it because if you use slip it tends to kind of food you out between on the other side and you ruin the effect of the handmade paper look now because I used cornstarch on this last one I'm going to use a little water just around the edges where it's going to join and you're just gonna see me pop up and down because this is just the most hideous level of table known to men for working yes I'll show you I'll show you that you got your quarter inch on the bottom too okay so now I'm just pressing on those themes with just a finger cuz I don't want to I don't want to press out my texture yes I will lose a little bit of texture at the seams but you can either let go with that or retexture it when it's standing up depending on how type-a you are okay so now I'm going to get this I'm going to use this side the rounded side not the flat side I saw people doing this by by texture okay use this side just at the seams okay so if at this point the top has got no wonky it's a lot easier to straighten it now trim anything off it's looking not straight okay so you see I have my overhang I don't have a lot on the bottom oh I made this upside down it doesn't matter and I have my overhang if you end up with like a half-inch go ahead and try to trim it down to a quarter inch okay now then there's the inside okay I'm sure that's freaking somebody out that it's not completely smooth oh come on my my answer to that is get over it because you can pass around this mug and look on the inside and the glaze really covers it all but you can see a hint of it through the glaze and to me I like that because it shows I love it when you can see how something is constructed like show me those scenes you know it was one of those people that wore switchers inside out before it was cool so I want to see that constructive and you you know this is completely what's the word hygienic nothing's gonna happen I'm still alive okay I've been doing this for 25 years the same walk yeah exactly yeah two years old I picked up the wahoo pick this up so I like to bevel the edge when I'm doing a join I am NOT a great beveler and okay I just kind of hey get in there hold my finger at an angle and then I say if you you want to learn to bevel go take Linwood's workshop she can do that in her sleep it's pretty amazing so I score that now that's when they start scoring is when there's a structurally like for a vase or something taller I do score it and use some water because as you've been assembling this it's been drying from the outer edge so that's a good thing good habit to get into now I also the only way I can bevel the other side make sure that they go together correctly is I have to flip the thing like I said take lens workshop she just goes this and this I would you know I tried I tried doing it she tried teaching it to me and she just said you're challenged that way go back to the way you're used to okay I've scored both sides Oh in the bottom I'm going to the XS that you have on the bottom turn it up flush with that bottom edge so that it's 90 degrees okay does everybody see that a little bit of water and then you're going to need to have a piece of tape ready we only have three rolls up here but we can all share this is about all you need get it ready for you on the table the last thing you need is this extra fancy super-scientific expensive tool the bear can and pantyhose so start rolling around your can oh okay and it should overlap don't worry if there's you know the tar paper is not going to meet anymore so don't worry about that you just want the lines to be parallel you don't have to worry about a tight seam there I mean it's not completely finished that's fine just get it standing up you can do a lot more with this pot when it's standing up then when it's on on its side so this is when you can get your hand on the outside your finger on the inside and there you go you've finished your scene okay so now I'm looking down from the top and I can see any thick thin areas and I can take a little pinch of clay show it in there if it looks sketchy if there's any place they're going to crack it's going to be from the rim down so I just try to when I look down from the top I want to see a nice even ring and if you don't see a nice even ring you just add little bits of clay and pretend you're a sculptor that's what I love about this process is see a problem fix it and you've created a new technique or a new feature okay now this is where you're going to need a dough these are one inch dowels if you're going to do use this process get yourself a one inch dowel get yourself one of these one of these and a nice long hand handled paintbrush those are the things you need because you're going to take this put it down on the bottom tamp the bottom you're thinning out oops you're thinning out that seam tomorrow Oh down there so it's not it reduces the bulk okay so this is the circle I need to cover you flip it over if you have some slab left over you can use that I tend to ball up my scraps it's getting a little stiff but we're just gonna go with it you can make a mini slab just by balling up clay and and rotating it keep rotating at 90 degrees or so and you end up with a mini slab without having to go back over to the slab roller so that would be so much more work okay this is a probably a little bit thinner than a quarter of an inch but I like it that way so it it's not really bulky at the join and I want there's a lot of different ways to put a base on something you can do whatever you like but I like the design we're like a tablecloth and the design goes right over the corner so I'd like it to look that way so I don't have a seam showing down there [Applause] and you just you know check it along the way I do rip it down as well because then it fins it right at the edge and again you're reducing bulk okay and this does not go all the way to the edge it's inside the edge now this is definitely getting dry so score really well no wimpy scores yeah that the the way I can get away with this without slip is I am just a vigorous scorer and if it'll just stick to it if you just lay it on top so you can see it doesn't go all the way to the edge turn it back over tamp it around the edges again do that a lot too I see a lot of people make these and they have this kind of excess sticking down there like droopy and so it makes your mug not straight up so you can fix a lot of things by doing that now this is the part okay I concede people don't like a bumpy bottom where you can see the seam they want a smooth bottom so that they feel like it's nice and easy to clean so I will give them that the only way to do that those are the nice long handle paintbrush there's a stiff one if you're going to go to the art supply store just get the cheapest stiff brush you can with a long handle okay and that makes things all tidy if you've got anything really adverse in there you can use it on the inside you know to get any boogers off and there we go now at this part I usually have a banding wheel but not today so we're just going to see Elaine try to get down on her knees I used to have such great knees but I had knee surgery like a month and a half ago so little little crickety all right now you get to do the unveiling so there's that and I'm gonna take just like that was a really sharp edge there I'm gonna take just a little bit of water on my fingertips to round it I see people take you know other people like to use a sponge up there I just never like to use a sponge on wet clay cuz to me you're washing the clay molecules away so you know do what works for you not around me okay so I've got that the other thing that I like to do is just get that handle on right if right as I've made it if if this is if this is kind of if you're not happy with the way this might dip in a little bit you can just push it back out okay now let's say okay what you've got here at the seams you've lost a little bit of your texture here you know a little bit of your texture there you can live with that or you can go back and restate by putting your hand on the inside like that totally up to you and sometimes I'll just if it's this one I know I can just wipe it clean a little bit and do it again but the bigger ones that I know I'm just going to get messy I'll take yet another piece of clay you know announcing that it's announcing announcing itself and it also I like it makes when somebody looks at one opposing color of clay and then you rotate the mug it's like it's bringing your eye around and searching for the other anomalies in that you know background of brown so I'm going to do that and yes I do lick clay and I'm not dead so and then re-stamped and then you've eliminated that thing that might be bugging you if you're type-a and made it a future so let's get that handle on so you guys can get working so I've got my left over now you can do whatever kind of handle that you you feel comfortable with pure luck if you like to extrude you like to pull handles whatever you like I wanted to make a handle that felt like a pulled handle but it was in keeping with the whole hand belt style and I wanted to make it like a pulled handle on that it started bigger at the shoulder and then got smaller at the wrist where it does the joint so the way I do that if you did this it would feel like a ruler ickey okay so this is where you can use your big devil again I'm going to make this as thin as possible because I'm going to roll it into a tube so it has some volume so I'll roll a little bit this way a little bit this way and make it a little longer and what you're doing is you're really condensing those clay molecules and once you do that you'll find that you can get away with a lot tighter curve when you're manipulating this than if it's just rolled out from a slab at a quarter inch okay so you can just feel it it's got this strength to it that it didn't have before okay so I put it facedown and I start rolling it towards me I always encourage people make more than one handle you'll be frustrated when you make this it's just not straightforward okay and then now I'm going to rotate it and pull the other side up and over and this surprisingly enough is good enough to seal the seam the reason it is and I put the seam on the outside because picture the seam on the inside it would hurt your finger not hurt it but it would bug your finger so seam is on the outside question but I overlap second second one yeah I am overlapping it can you see it's overlapped just a bit and you know I don't use any water or anything and the reason it stays down at the tail end where I want it skinny that's fine if you just use a little bit of a ruler I just want to maintain the seen but when you curve it you are putting your fingers right on top of that seam and you're actually condensing it right down into the bottom part so I I mean I literally never had it pop open that way I don't know it's magic okay so I'm trying to no no aren't you gonna ask that's a very good question and we've all been filled with the fear of God when you start throwing about that air bubble it's going to make it explode well trapped air isn't what makes things and explode when they're thin like this if it's really thick and you're doing a sculpture yes moisture trapped moisture it what is what makes it explode if you're Biscay slowly like we all do and your pot is very dry these pores in this clared are not closed yet they're not going to be and tell you a high fire the air seems to make it out and and I kid you not I've never ever ever blown a handle off okay I did it once with a big pitcher where I had some supports inside the handle and I forgot to make pin holes so for something big this you don't need to something bigger where you're putting like a support system inside the handle to keep the volume hidden pinholes okay all right but I promise you I shouldn't promise people they're like somebody's somebody if you blow it off somebody's going to tell me you lent yeah Len you big liar pay me back for the workshop okay so I got it in the shape of question mark and ear okay I'm going to bevel this edge here gives me a nice area to join last workshop some people joined it straight on I never like to do that it gives me the willies because there's not enough surface area to join but they pulled it off so I applaud them anybody that can find a way to do this better and then something that makes them happy I hope you make a million of them and sell them and make a mint and tell me how to do it cuz I can't it's too slow okay where I like to put the handle is over that straight seam because that is the only straight part of the only straight seam on the mug everything else is more random so I am going to score about an inch down from the top and all the way at the bottom I want a four finger mug this is a big mug so I want it to be able to have four fingers let's say you take the top third of this off and you've got a two finger cup because it's eight ounces you might just have a two finger handle knowing it requires it's much shorter so I tend to hold it up to the mug and see where my hand lies and so I was taught that if you get your hand as close to the middle the top top middle volume of the pot that's going to be nice and easy to drink from or to pour it's not to say you know people like a handle way out here I mean it's it's your pot some it might look completely awesomely you so do what you like don't skimp on by this time everything's drawing don't skimp on the scoring and usually you've got a little bit of you know almost slip working in the bottom of the cup by then from dipping your brush in I push this up onto the mug so that it sticks I'm not going to do the final you know this is it it's on there forever because I want to make sure I've got it this way and then I want to get it this way and if I had a banding wheel it would be a lot easier but I want to make sure that I've got that negative space just how I want it okay because I know that I want four fingers in there so I tend to pull out that bottom a little bit do I need to pull this down a little bit if I got too much of a handle no I think I've got it so now I can do like this now I can really squeeze it together like this on the inside like ways I'm going to push that so that it's joined look at it one more time never hurts to look at that handle one more time it's such a drag when you you missed it that's the last detail and and you've got a crooked handle I know everybody's done it okay voila do we have questions let's go you [Music]

Channel: Orchard Valley Ceramic Arts Guild

Views: 15,540

Rating: 4.7800689 out of 5

Keywords: ovcag, pottery, clay, ceramics, tar paper, functional ware

Id: KqYRPUDD8AQ

Length: 39min 47sec (2387 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 28 2019