I’ve Made Thousands of These Pots 

I’ll admit it, the visual of pulling the initial length of clay does make for a startling opener to a video like this. Length like that isn’t something I would’ve been able to manage back when I started pulling handles, instead, I’d aim for a strand of clay that I could perhaps snip 2-3 blacks from, but with practice, and with clay that’s not too soft, it is possible to create lengths that yield 7-8 handle blanks. This is simply one way of increasing efficiency when making, yet at the end of the day, neither are vastly better, provided the final handle that’s created at the end is successful. It makes for a good hook though I suppose and that’s all I feel social media is about these days. The fact that these are such simple shapes, means that there’s very little room to hide. If a handle is poorly attached or has an incorrect arch it’s obvious. If the body isn’t perfectly straight and there’s a groove in the wall, or the rim bows inward or outward, it’s obvious. Thus, much of making simply shaped pottery is keep these irregularities to a minimum, or embrace them if you want, whatever floats your boat. I made these from a high-iron stoneware clay body that sometimes gets confused with terracotta, earthenware, and rightly so as the tones are very similar. Yet, terracotta pots fired to cone ten in a reduction atmosphere would turn into puddles of black glass. Instead, I use a body that contains iron, as this creates beautiful little flecks of metal in the finished objects, and it also contains around 10% grog, which can help with things such as warping as the pots are fired. With that said, due to how thin these are, I do have to pack them into the kiln strategically as if they’re too close to the burners, where the flames jettison into the kiln, they can warp on the side that nearest the fire. Thus, when packed into the chamber, they are purposefully placed hidden within a crowd of other vessels, such as bud vases and small store jars, as these can better withstand the heat due to their lids and inward sloping, partly enclosed rims. Lots of these will be included in my online shop restock soon. #pottery #mug #satisfying #craft #ceramics