#pottery tools

[claypigeonpottery]

hi what tool do you use for sgraffito?

hi! I use a few different tools and I’m actually glad to be getting this question now because I recently got a new tool and wanted to write down my impressions

(I’m not sponsored or anything, I just like these)

my favourite tool is Kemper’s wire stylus, it’s a very fine tool and doesn’t generally leave furrows in the clay. plus the shape of it keeps me from accidentally carving too deep

I find Xiem’s ribbon tools incredibly useful for different sized marks, carving a smoother surface, or creating certain textures

and this is the new one I got about a month ago, Kemper’s small double-ball stylus. I know a couple other sgraffito artists who swear by them, but it’s not my favourite. it can carve some very fine lines but I find it often leaves furrows in the clay and I have to go over my lines a second time to clean them up 🫤 and it can slip and carve too deep as well if I accidentally use too much pressure

but it can carve tight circles and small loopy shapes much more easily than the wire stylus, so I’ll definitely still use it for some details

[jbbartram-illu]

Do you have any advice for someone taking their first ever ceramics class soon? Are there any beginner tools you'd recommend? Your art is super inspiring and incredible!

I think my main advice would be to go in with enthusiasm & put aside any fear of screwing up -- clay can have a mind of its own & sometimes you have to make some shitty pots (or creatures) before you figure out how to listen to the clay and have it listen to you back!

This advice is particularly important if you're starting with wheel throwing, as there's a lot more going on/a lot more obscure hand positions/physics going on in the learning curve. Handbuilding/sculpting is a little less intense from the get-go, but still requires a willingness to futz around & learn the feel of the medium before you can get good.

In terms of tools, the studio should have everything you need, but if you do latch on to pottery like I did & decide to set up a home studio (or start doing your own outside-of-class work at the studio where you're taking classes, as some places do offer open studio time), I made a post a while ago going over my most-used tools.

These are specifically for sculpting, as I hadn't started making my mugs yet, but I use a lot of these for handbuilding the mugs as well...the only things I'd add for vessel-making are a full-size rolling pin (I have the most basic wooden one, purchased from a home hardware) & this scorer that makes scratching the joints of the mugs faster vs. a pin tool:

All my tools are handbuilding-oriented, as I don't work on the wheel right now, but I can tell you that some of the tools you need for wheel throwing are a pin tool, a wood tool to do the base, a sponge, a trimming tool, and maybe one or two other things I've forgotten?? I'm sure the lovely people where you're taking classes can also help out with tool suggestions (I generally find potters to be some of the kindest, most excited-to-share-techniques sorts of people)!

[oldfarmhouse]

https://www.instagram.com.atellier. olivae

[newluddite]

Assassin Potters.

My Wife is taking a pottery class. She came home with the set of tools she needs to make pots and things. One of the items is a Garrotte.

It is is thin wire strung between two small dowel handles. It is identical to what I saw in a Commando display at a museum. Was there a desperate fight in a pottery studio and the commando grabbed what came to hand or was there a trained assassin taking a day off for meditative clay manipulation? Hey this can be used with pots they think.

Sentries searching a potter's sack could find this lethal tool; "Whats this for?"

"It's just for cutting my pots off of the wheel." So innocent and not threatening. Then the sentry turns his back and.....

Which cam first the potters or the assassins?

[ornamentodeux]

More Adventures with Porcelain

[grand-theft-carbohydrates]

i literally spend at least 2 hours a week just looking at various pictures of the terracotta army. utterly entranced. look at the details in the hair. you'd never see ANY of this when they're lined up in formation, but they're there.  

theres about 8000 of these guys down there, no two faces are alike. they're works of art. they're the manifestation of a cruel despot's delusions of grandeur. a talisman against the terrible inevitability of death, both pathetic and strangely pitiful. like watching a child clinging to his blanket, begging you not to turn off the light. they were a bunch of insignificant clay statues from a side chamber that was so small and unremarkable, no one bothered to write down the location. they were modelled after real people. their only purpose was to serve qin shi huang in the afterlife, so he could reign in heaven as he did on earth. now the emperor is just a ghost and his pawns are immortal. my dad and i visited them in the dead of winter, on a weekday, just so we wouldn't have to deal with tourists like us. the place had easily 500 people--not including the ones below ground. we traveled to xian via the old "green skin" diesel train. there are faster means, like highspeed rail but dad insisted i try the authentic way, the same way he would have traveled when he was my age it was also like, a quarter of the price but im sure that had nothing to do with it! back in the 80s carriages would get so packed people had to have their luggage passed in via the windows. as we chugged along, i read my book and my dad made us cup noodles. car is just a shortened version of "carriage", the word is the same but the mechanism is different. it's the same in chinese. i think if i told someone from the warring states period i could travel from the Kingdom of Qi to Qin in just four hours with my metal carriage, i'd be laughed out of town--or accused of being a spy and sentenced to 'death by carriage.' we hopped off the train at 4am and took a different "carriage." the taxi driver joked; "basically every dynasty put their capital in xian, stick a shovel anywhere and you'll turn up some national treasure or another." i wonder what it would have felt like to be a farmer digging a well and then out pops a remarkably realistic human head. statistical analysis show the soldier's faces bear a strong similarity to people living in the region today. the taxi stopped in front of a jewellery-hawking tourist trap and refused budge an inch until we went inside. did you know the terracotta soldiers were originally multi-coloured and painfully gaudy, just like the greek marbles? they were made assembly-line style. the arms and legs were made from the same workshops that made clay plumbing pipes and roof tiles. for quality control, the artisans were required to stamp their names. the workers who built these tombs were executed shortly afterwards, because only dead men can be trusted with secrets. qin shi huang's mausoleum is unlikely to be excavated in my father's lifetime, or mine, not unless i'm willing to take a BIG ONE for the team... instead of the tomb, they built some kind of qin shi huang-themed theme park next to it. not only was it tacky as hell the entrance fee was like $50. we went to the museum and i looked at bronze tools and pottery shards for three hours. look why can't we just crack the thing open i can't be the only one here whos dying from curiosity what if we all just took turns digging

[ansonmountdaily]

Anson Mount working on pit fire pottery in his workshop

Some highlights of Anson unveiling his latest pottery pieces on Instagram. Making clay pottery (mugs, bowls, vases, etc) is one of Anson's hobbies! The specific type of pottery produced is called earthenware.

"This is not a regular kiln opening, this is gonna be an opening of a barrel fire. Many of you probably heard of pit fire pottery and it's exactly what it sounds like; it's when you dig a pit, you build a fire in the pit, you put the pottery in there with a bunch of botanicals and chemicals, and you cover it up and let the fire do the work. We talked a lot about chaos in the process last time. This is one of the more chaotic processes that you can do with pottery because you just have absolutely no idea what the fire is gonna do." - Anson Mount

Source: Anson Mount Official Instagram May 24 2023 + clips from May 20 2023 and May 18 2023

[knitmeapony]

Today in things I didn't know existed: accessible pottery wheels.

Hell YEAH. Gonna check in and see if the big pottery school I like to go to has one.

[vipermenace]

I would like to introduce my new dnd pc that came to me in a dream!

Meet Clementine Pots, the marsh bronze dragonborn wild magic sorcerer. Clementine believes he's a regular dragonborn, little does he know his magical potency. He uses magic without knowing while making his pottery bowls and artisanal goods. Unleashing wild magic around him; it's why he's now bright orange! Clementine thinks he just went through normal dragonborn puberty and his pots are the magical ones (he's not the brightest).

His best friend is Mitch the swamp ratfolk, unbeknownst to Clementine, he's a mob boss. Clem just thinks his friend has a good job with benefits and networking. He's even helped Mitch on a few odd jobs that may or may not be incriminating.

Also when he casts sending, he picks up random rocks he finds and taps with his claws to send a message. Clementine thinks this is how everyone uses sending stones.

[nymla]

🌼 Shop Update! 🌼

The shop has been restocked :} One of the pieces is this paint palette & cup.

Handbuilt/sculpted/pinched stoneware ceramics. With a lil place on the rim of the paint cup where you can let your brush have a rest.

You know, I love making paint palettes and I feel ✨blessed✨ to have them be a small part of someones elses artistry or creative journey! How amazing to be a part of an ecosystem of creativity?! 🤩

You can check them all out at: www.nymla.se/shop

Thaaank you all for being here!

[claypigeonpottery]

@san-sebastienne thank you!

the details are done with Kemper’s wire stylus

(it’s my favourite)

[thepastisalreadywritten]

[someratidk]

one of those moments where you start a painting traditionally but then give up and switch mediums entirely bcs erm acrylic paint and i dont really erm meld well erm i never do realism like ever and for good reason HAHAHAHAH

[tyrhinosaurus]

My pottery has come so far holy cow

A year and a half, and pretty much everything I finish brings me so much joy and pride

Lowkey tempted to start a business. What could possible go wrong...

[lailoken]

Another amazing gift from my husband is this Mirror-Black Scrying Basin that he crafted for my Scrying Plinth—lustrated in the waters of our land's Matron River. It is most definitely an improvement from the previous basin (though, it was charming in its own right.)

[thesilicontribesman]

Middle Jomon Pottery and Worked Tools, Japan, 5000 years old, 'Circles of Stone: Stonehenge and Prehistoric Japan' Exhibition, Stonehenge Visitor Centre, Wiltshire