Pinching & Coiling

Hand-building techniques have been explored this week. Although not new to me it’s good to have a refresher to check you are not slipping into bad habits or if there are better ways to get the same or improved results.

First we tackled pinch pots and the challenge of creating identical forms in triplicate. Not something I’ve done before as I usually create one off pieces, but it was good practice to get us in the habit of creating multiple pieces to form a collection.

The forms above are at the middle stage of forming and require further refinement but I was happy at this stage that they were similar in shape and height.

The coiling project was much trickier. Not the biggest fan of coiling as they tend to be flat and irregular which became apparent early on in the project. The picture below shows my first attempts at hand rolling my own coils. In the past I have used the convenience of an extruder or when not available I make a hybrid between coil and slab which has served me successfully for many years. Determined not to be beaten I persisted and found that by angling my hand up away from the clay it produced a more consistent rounded coil.

The task was to keep the sides of the vessel straight which was a good exercise in clay control.

The above pictures show the initial stages of production. The clay was drying quickly when forming coils so became challenging to form a smooth surface and create a strong bond between each coil layer. The application of water helped with this.

Using a strip of wood helped with creating a straight form which left interesting marks on the clay.

Our third element was to produce an upside down coil dome which was new to me, but could see the benefits of the application especially when producing bigger work.

I am pleased with my finished pieces that I have made and look forward to using the pieces for testing glazes.