Mixing Copper Into Clay

You’ll be well acquainted by now with the bronze I’ve occasionally been using in my pottery, mostly I’ve been adding sprinkles of it into my reclaim, giving it a good mix, and then proceeding with processing it like normal, spreading the reclaim out on plaster batts and then thoroughly wedging it once dry enough. This means there’ll be a few seldom crimson dots in the next batch of mugs or bowls. Yet, in this video, I’m going for something altogether more dramatic by wedging a handful of the metal into a single larger lump of clay, which I’ll throw into an angular vase with a linear protrusion. Yes, the results will likely be utterly overwhelming and red, yet the idea is that these vibrant pots standalone amongst the rest, especially when displayed. They draw your eye across a collection of arranged pieces and give their surface a lot of character and depth, interest really. The throwing of these is the easy part, as the shards do just sink and disappear into the stoneware, but it’s the trimming stage thereafter, once it’s turned leather hard, that’ll be considerably trickier. The fragments skitter and scratch the surface, resulting in careful trimming with lots of back and forth, correcting gouges, filling them up and smoothing the surfaces with gentler tools, such as plastic kidneys, as compared to the metal ones I usually use, but more on that in the next video! #bronze #metallic #satisfying #craft #ceramics #pottery