William Mackenzie
  • Gallery
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • About Me & Contact

It's Clay Time!

7/22/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
I have a strong interest bordering on an obsession with pottery and ceramics but it is not something I have ever tried make.  That is I wandered past on Blackstock Road, Clay Time. 

It's a good name which always help.  Basically there are three parts to the store. First you can just buy pottery and they have some pretty nice stuff. 
Picture
Picture
Secondly you can drop in, pretty much whenever you want, and either make ceramics or decorate ready made ceramics.   The thing that most interested me though is that they do pottery making courses, so I signed up for five weeks beginners course on wheel throwing.  

Our instructor was Mitra Mahmoodi. She was very good and over 5 weeks took us through the basics of wheel throwing.  It is very difficult. It requires both patience and a lightness of touch.  Neither of these are my strong point.  

The first two weeks we were being taught how to knead the clay to get rid of all the air bubbles, and then centre it on the wheel.  This is the scene from ghost bit where you cover yourself in water and massage the clay up and down.   What they don't tell you is all this is actually quite phyiscally tough and tricky to do. 

​Once the clay is centred you can then open it up and pinch up the side of the pots.  This is the very tricky part and the pile of ruined half pot strewn around my wheel was testament to my lack of skill in this regard.  After three weeks I had three wobbly efforts below.  
Picture
Picture
The next stage is turning the pot so that it changes into something actually bowl or cup shaped.  It is at this stage you really appreciate having centered the whole thing properly for doing so makes thing easier.  Or rather not having centered them properly makes it much more difficult and one my pots didn't make it through this process and I had to use one the instructor made. 
Picture
Picture
Then they are fired, bisque firing it is called.  I only fired three and they came out like this.  
Picture
Picture
Finally, decorating by the application of glazes, of which they are three types.  There is dip glazes, which is exactly as it sounds, you dip the whole pot in a glaze, of which there are various colours.  I chose to dip one in Turkish Turquoise.  

Then there are is normal glaze, which you can paint into various patterns onto the pot. 

Both of the above two cannot be applied on top of each other or they will interact, but the final type, underglaze can and you can use this to paint pretty much as you would with oils.  Painting around a curve is difficult. This is the stage, I have to say that I enjoyed most. 
Picture
Picture
 Finally they are glaze fired.  10 days later I had the final results.  I was quite pleased with two them but one looks like it was made by a crazed child.  I am really glad I did it though, it was a lot of fun and I recommend it. I shall probably go again. 
Picture
Picture
The people there are super friendly and were kind enough to let me put up a poster for my upcoming exhibition. 
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

      Keep in Touch

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Archives

    January 2025
    September 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Gallery
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • About Me & Contact