Mending cracks and a bit more raw glazing - March 3rd 2021 with Simon Leach

hi folks i'm just getting the camera straight here there we go good day to you all good day good day good day yeah i'm just here these uh tankers you just saw me well in the last video you saw me um glaze the insides those were now i've just done the outsides of those ones i've got to do the outside of these and then what we're going to do is i'm going to do a little repair show you how to do a repair if you get a crack in in one of your your pots and you want to repair it you want to save it you don't want to um discard it throw it away you know you want to salvage it so yeah that's those two we'll put those to one side right [Music] let's bring the camera a little bit closer i know this is repeat repeat repeat what we've done in the past but ah that's what we do isn't it we're potters we repeat we repeat we repeat we repeat because we repeat the sale you make something and it's good you want to make another don't you because somebody else wants to buy one and somebody else and then somebody else i had some good news today and that is somebody has bought call me up and they want to buy that wheel over there so that's good yeah taking orders on leech treble wheels um we need to get together probably another couple people maybe three and then we'll have enough people to start start a fresh batch so if you're interested in a leech trailer wheel get in touch now is the time okay so let's uh we're just going to dip the outside of this now we've done the inside we didn't wipe off as i explained um now we're just going to simply just dip down so i can just about make the stretch here with my with my my hand i don't have a very big hand generally speaking so yeah it's a bit of a it's a bit of a it's a bit of a it's a bit of a stretch but i can do it the idea is of course to be able to glaze it without getting any glaze on the bottom at all so we've got to be gonna be a bit clever haven't we all right down make sure you keep it dead straight when you put it in you see hold it there a second or two and then up there it is and you see he's nice and clean let the drips off next one yeah i've got to get out there and get that kiln firing yeah we really don't want to get any glaze on the bottom because that will mean having to wipe it with a sponge and that will cause that grog to come to the surface we don't want that yeah if you're interested in coming on a workshop we are taking people now people are booking on we're going to have a great year we're going to have to do a lot of teaching so if you want to come on a workshop give me a shout check out the dates on the website see if there's a date there that fits in with your schedule right one more here with this this is a celadin green glaze it's a cellared and green and you don't get solid and green except in a reduction reducing atmosphere you need a gas kiln really to do that okay you just just clean this board here a bit there we go right i just washed my hands lovely sunny day here today and about 50 odd degrees apparently right um all right we've done that i'm going to put these these guys over here because these are now ready for decorating so what we're going to do now is my banning wheel here is i'm going to show you if you have a crack now this one is a little worse than the other one if you get cracking you need to ask yourself why am i getting cracking well you can see that crack down there well the reason i know why because when i put the handle on i left it too long before i decided to add this little gusset of clay in here which is it's supposedly to really to strengthen the the handle at the base here ironically though it's now it's gone and cracked you know and i got a repair job i've got to do otherwise if i fire that that'll that crack won't go away in the kiln the glaze might fill it in a bit but it won't go away so all right so i'm gonna need a swig of tea this is one of those ladies mugs which is a this is a a second it had some bloating on it it's quite nice i should make some more really okay so we need some vinegar now you can use just ordinary distilled white vinegar for this what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna put okay so i'm gonna need a vinegar i'm gonna need a little container all right we're gonna take some dry some dry clay i'm just kind of breaking it up put it in there all right i'm just gonna add some vinegar to that down in the bottom there i should have done this really ahead of time and then i would have given it a better chance to just soak down so i'm going to have to use some violent method here to get this plated rulers have uses you know rulers have their uses actually what you should do is just carefully i don't get any bits of clay going down into this glaze bucket okay i'm using that as a so you can see what i'm doing here i'm making and you can if you have a container like this that's got a lid you can see what i'm doing i've got a like a lump of a lump of vinegarized clay i'm going to add a smidgen more vinegar to it not very much just a little bit whoa huh the end of my paintbrush broke off where did it go okay so you don't want to have it too liquid you know yeah do this ahead of time you can keep it in a little pot like this with a lid and when you need it you you know your habit says he having not done the same myself i don't get cracking i'll be honest very much so one of the reasons i don't get cracking generally speaking is because over there you see you saw me put these handles on before so once you've once you've put your handles on you want to to cover them you know let them let them rest a while covered and then the the moisture content difference between the handle and the body will sort of equalize out okay and you won't get the cracking you only get cracking when you you know one one side of the equation is too dry and the other is too wet okay the body of the pot you you're putting a handle on is too dry and the handle is too wet that's what's going to give you cracking all right so i think uh yeah what else i want to get another little container actually because this is a not a very nice brush so um hang about oh look at that look at that i was chastising myself look what's that say mending cracks clay putty but as you can see this has long since dried out so that needs that needs re-wetting down we might as well stick some vinegar in there now somewhat like that i forgot i had that but yeah if you keep it in a container like that with a sealed lid it'll be it'll be ready for you you know we haven't got to do making it up fresh like this just before i'm about to use it i really should make it up you know let it sit a while so that the it gets thoroughly nicely homogenized you know the vinegar and the dry clay but that's actually feels a bit better now all right let's have a sip of tea nice moringa and green matcha green tea so these cheap artist brushes you know have their uses so we're just gonna we're just gonna take one of these i don't think i fancy a pink one we'll take a yellow one okay now what i want to do is oh yeah i was going to get another container just to put the reason being i just want to put some so putting a little vinegar just here in this in this plastic lid okay so what we do is we just take our brush okay and then we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna just paint that vinegar over your crack okay paint the vinegar over the crack okay like that now we're gonna take some of this this paste and we're gonna put a bit of paste into that crack okay so do the best you can and just get that it well and truly down in that crack now i'm just going to take a bit more vinegar and just work over that into that crack all right i may have to do that again as possible now this one it's barely noticeable but i can see it's just a this is one i had repaired before and i'm just i'm gonna do it one more time here putting a little vinegar over that there then so the consistency of this is sort of like as you see here okay it's it's you don't want it too too liquid just putting a bit of that there like that and again a little bit of vinegar over that try and make it as smooth as you can smooth it out okay right now yeah now we're just going to have to leave that to to dry out all right and then once it's dried out and if i see that it's satisfactory satisfactory that it isn't cracked it's it's it's mended the crack you know then i will dip these in glaze as well i can't remember who who where i got that information from actually about i might as well put all this in one container yeah i can't remember where where where i it's fairly comparatively recently i honestly can't remember where i got it from or whether i actually came up with it i'd i'm sure i wasn't the first one to think of it but i don't know maybe it was no i don't need to okay okay so put that one away for another day you it's something you you know you you don't really want to have to do i agree it's not ideal but you know what in pottery life happens doesn't it [Laughter] as you will discover you know things are not always ideal cracking does occur pots do go wrong you know it's just it's the way it is so yeah mending cracks clay putty vinegar and clay just make sure you use dry clay that doesn't have any water in it okay okay folks well thank you for joining me as i've said previously taking orders on leash wheels workshops are in process if you want to come and join us write to me simon leech pottery gmail.com it's on the website if you're interested in tools i encourage you have the right tools to do the job um you know make your own you know i always i recommend to people make your own tools but if you don't want to be bothered to make your own i can sell you some and there are other tools out there as well by other people but have good tools and know why you like them i think it's important to know why you like certain tools because tools are well designed have some thought that has been put into them you know and which makes them maybe better than other tools anyway think about that and i have a lot of videos up there on making your own tools whether it be cut off wires sponge sticks i think i've done yeah i mean i haven't shown you how to make a trim tool because i don't make them myself i get them made because they're too too too time consuming to make and in fact we just i've just about sold my last trim tool but i'm going to be going down to my amish metalsmith and picking some more up any day now so don't worry what it says on the website if you want a trim tool there's plenty more there there i've got another 30 on the way i think yeah if you want a leech treble wheel a kit wheel not a finish one like that a kit wheel um get in touch with me if you've got questions about elite triple wheel and you you're you're you know you're you're uncertain about it you want more information don't be don't be frightened just ring me up or write to me and i'll tell you uh all you need to know about them um if you're local here and you want and you're not and you're not sure about getting one but you'd like to try one of course we'll just call me up if you want to come by the studio here i'll give you some clay you can sit on a wheel and have a go i agree you know give it a go try it see if you if you like it um they're a little bit strange to work with at first because you haven't got any muscle memory in your leg when you start and when you as you as you practice you develop muscle memory and you suddenly it becomes easy that's all i can say you know yeah so let's try the wheel good wheels the best really in many ways the best okay folks that's it enough talk thank you for joining me as always keep practicing build muscle memory because that's what practicing does make lots of pots and don't get precious about your pots you know just make pots get wear boards you know like these wear boards so you can put lots of pots on have lots of clay lots of lumps and make tons and that's how you learn keep practicing we'll see you soon bye [Music]

Channel: Simon Leach

Views: 2,072

Rating: 4.9555554 out of 5

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Id: UZ0VJGUzqr0

Length: 25min 3sec (1503 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 03 2021