At-Home Ceramic Activities

Although we may be temporarily closed, it is important to us to continue our mission and to bring joy to our community through the arts during this difficult time. Each day, we will be posting a ceramic activity you can do from home!

Tips for Carving Clay

Hand Built Bowl

Ceramic Review

Hand Built Mug

How to Make Planters

Brushwork Decoration

Feet and Lid for a Handbuilt Teapot

159 Pots in One Hour

Underglazes

Today’s turorial involves underglaze. Underglazes are widely available and we also have them available at our studio. Since underglazes can become costly, we ask that studio users buy their own if they want to use them on a regular basis.
Underglazes can be applied to greenware and bisqueware. I personally like to use it on greenware, because then I still have an opportunity to touch up any errors in the bisqueware stage. However, greenware is very vulnerable to breakage, so painting greenware can be a bit nerve wracking.

Ceramic Dishes

Here is a nice instructional video on how to make tiny dishes. This instructor uses a snowflake cookie cutter, but you can use any cookie cutter or, for round shapes, even just a glass or bowl.
Look around your house for things to use to create texture. For example, buttons can be really fun!
When I don’t have a foam bat around, I use a sponge to push the shape down to create the bowl shape.

Ceramic Spoons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMG9KGLj9tE

Underglaze Techniques

This video shows various ways to use underglazes for surface decorations. Underglazes are widely available on-line. There are several brands but Amaco, Mayco, and Speedball seem to be the more popular ones.  Make sure the underglaze can be fired to at least cone 6 (NOT the same as 06!!) so we can fire it for you at The Warehouse. Have fun!

Hand Built Piece

Sgraffito Tray

Easy and Simple Clay House

Soft Slab Construction

Relaxing Sounds of the Potter's Studio

Pinch Pot Cups

Textured Slab Plate

This video shows how to use a plate as a slab mold as well as how to use a plaster mold. Texturizing the slab can give a very cool effect. Don’t worry about having official clay texturizing tools. Lace, forks, the rim of a glass, spools, or even paper towel rolls with string around it, will work wonders. Look around your home and I’m sure you will find something to create textures. Have fun!

Surface Decoration

Ceramic Bunny Tutorial

How to use 10 simple wooden tools for forming and finishing your pots!

The Clay Masters of Tokoname
Pottery Basket
Clay Tools
Here is an idea for making texture. This artist uses craft foam which works great. Of course there are many other materials you could try like the cardboard from the back of writing pads, string glued on cardboard, or just plain glue. Once dried, all of these techniques can be used to create texture on clay. Have fun!

Tile Making

In this video, the potter uses underglaze to create sgrafito. Underglazes can be ordered from any ceramic supply store or even amazon. I like Amaco brand or Speedball brand,  but there are other great brands as well. Just make sure the underglaze you choose can be fired to cone 6. This is the temperature we fire at the warehouse.
If you don’t have underglaze, no problem. You can scratch patterns directly into your clay tiles when leather hard. The pattern will show up just fine with most of the glazes we use at the warehouse.

Mug Handles

Garden Gnome

How to Make a Clay Fairy House

Ceramic Cat

Ceramic Animals

 

Pinch Pot Birds

 

Elephant Ice Cream Bowl

 

Make your own Handmade Mug with a Pulled Handle

 

Make your own Bird Feeder

Enjoy this step by step!

Coil Pot

Make sure that all your coils are solidly attached.

Make Your Own Potter's Apron

from artist/instructor Johanna Buwalda!

1. Regular old kitchen apron for the pattern.
2. Using the old kitchen apron, I made a newspaper pattern. I want to make my potters apron a little bigger to get more coverage. I’m a messy potter. What can I say.
3. I cut the pattern on the fold of the newspaper.
4. Then I measure the length I want for the apron. I need two long rectangular pieces that are going to overlap and make this into a split apron.
5. I cut all the pieces, plus three straps. Two of the straps will be so I can tie the apron on the back. The third strap is for around my neck.
6. Here are all the pieces. I pinned the seams and I’m ready to sew.

Hand Built Bowl

Here is a simple way to make a hand built bowl.

You can roll out your slab between too pieces of cotton, linen, or canvas fabric. Any bowl will work. Just make sure you cover it with some thin plastic or corn starch so it doesn’t stick. Instead of a band wheel or turn table, use a newspaper. A newspaper can be turned around and doesn’t stick to the clay or your table.

Wedging Your Clay

Wedging is a super important skill to have when making pottery. Here is an instructional video on why to wedge and how to wedge.

Create a Round Slab Cup

Happy Mugshot Monday! Here is a mug you can make at home.

Hand Built Pitcher

Remember to score and slip your pieces. Add coils to support your seems and prevent them from cracking. Dry your hand built pieces very slowly under some plastic.

Create a Pinch Cup

Don’t worry if you don’t have the official clay tools at home. Credit cards make great ribs, toothbrushes and forks will work just fine for scoring, and you probably have all kinds of things in your kitchen drawers and garage that you can use for carving and stamping nice surface decorations.

Make Your Own Clay Bisque Stamps

This is a great time to make some stamps for making amazing textures in future pieces. Here is one YouTube instructional video on how to make them.

Coil Building

You can make slip by mushing some clay with water to make a paste. An old toothbrush makes a perfect scoring tool.