Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time, I made a big pot.

Big as in over 25 pounds of clay not counting handles and lid.  

Melissa Kniceley and Hal Dedmond came over to my studio the last Wednesday of January and we had an absolute blast.  Melissa makes big pots like this all the time and agreed to show Hal and me the process.  The piece in the picture above is what I ended up with.  It's far from perfect, but I can stand it for my first ever effort on something this size. Hal and Melissa, both of whom are significantly more skilled and talented than am I, made really nice pieces that I can't wait to see finished.  

So, how does this work?  Lots of clay, some fire, several cookies, and lots of hours of work is how.  Note: cookies make everything better and should be a required ingredient to all big projects.

I started with about 5.5 or 6 pounds of clay for the bottom.  That's the biggest that I can comfortably center. Then Melissa showed me how to use a propane torch to dry the clay so that it would support the weight of the large clay coils.  We started with this small torch.  With the piece turning on the wheel, I kept the fire on the clay until it was smoking and a good leather hard.  

The next step is to roll out a big coil, score the top edge of the pot and the coil, add a little bit of water, and attach the soft clay to the leather hard pot.  In the picture above, Melissa is showing Hal how to attach the coil to his pot. 

Here's my piece with a coil attached.  Once the coil is firmly attached, then you pull the clay up extending the walls.  

This is what I had several coils later.  After pulling the clay up as far as it would go each time, I had to trim the rim to make it even.  Less trimming would probably be necessary if I could roll out a coil worth a darn.  I struggle with that, so I just trimmed off the uneven clay after each coil.

After trimming the rim, add fire.  As you can tell, after the first couple of coils, I switched from little fire to big fire.  Big fire was a little scary, but is AWESOME!!  Once I got the hang of it, I became much less concerned that I was going to ignite my hair and drying the clay moved along much faster.

Fire on the inside of the pot and the outside of the pot - all while the wheel is slowing turning.  I wish I had taken some video so you could hear the fire as well as see it.  So. Much. Fun. Holding the torch with one hand and operating my phone with the other hand was a little tough to do, so a video would have been so shaky that it would have given us all motion sickness.  Still shots are better.

Hal working the big fire and Melissa adding a coil.

Melissa working the big fire and Hal working on the shape of his pot.

More of same.  Aren't my friends photogenic?  And talented?  Seriously, I was a few steps behind all day because I wanted to watch them work.  I love to watch other potters do what they do.

Thanks to Melissa for taking photo.

Things that I learned:

1. I should have moved to the lower wheel before I added a lot of clay.  Instead, I moved what I was working on once it got so tall that I couldn't comfortably pull any higher.  It warped and I had to work hard to try to get it back roundish so that I could finish it. 
2. Getting wide is easier than getting narrow. My piece ended up a lot larger than I originally had in mind because I let it get too wide before I started working to bring it back in.  
3. I need a propane torch.  Little fire would be a very handy tool to have on hand on the regular.  Big fire is fun, but at this point, not necessary. Maybe.
4. I still suck at rolling coils. 
5. When adding handles the next day, remember that the clay is dryer than you are used to it being.  Score and slip BOTH ends of the handle (I usually can get away with only doing this to the top of the handle) and then wrap it up and let it dry slow.  I put three handles on this bad boy and so far, two of them have come loose at the bottom. The first one I fixed and the second one I'm still working on fixing.  Fingers crossed that I can reattach it.
6. I will need to do this again soon and try to correct all the rookie mistakes that I made.
7. After 8 hours of working on the same piece, I will hate everything about it.  True story.  It happened.  The next day I felt better though.  

If I can solve the problem of the unattaching handles, I will have to fire this big boy.  Oh boy.  Glazing is not going to be fun.  What was I thinking?