Surface Decoration for Ceramics E-Book

Claire Ireland

• Herausgeber: The Crowood Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 328

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

This practical and beautiful book covers a wide range of inventive, decorative techniques and encourages the maker to be adventurous and experimental. By building a repertoire of decorating skills and methods, it shows how the maker can create distinctive marks and surfaces on clay, thereby making their work individual and unique. With so many ideas and clear, practical instruction to the techniques, this book is an essential reference for makers of all skill levels, and is sure to inspire a new and creative stream of work. From embossing, engraving, printing and embellishing the clay surface using coloured slips, underglaze colours, oxides and glazes. Coloured clay and smoke firing effects, as well as the exciting potential of mixed media. The importance of mark-making tools and advice on making a personal collection. With insights from individual makers who generously share their discoveries and decorative experiments Over 450 lavish photos illustrate the techniques and ideas covered

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Introduction

 1 Sketchbooks and Design

 2 Tools and Equipment

 3 Texture and Embossing

 4 Slip Techniques

 5 Printing and Transfer

 6 Colour in Clay

 7 Mixed Media

 8 The Fired Surface

Resources

Artist Contributors

Bibliography

Index

INTRODUCTION

Decorating a ceramic surface can be the most rewarding aspect of working in clay. This book is for the potter who wants to be more creative, more adventurous, to explore decorative techniques and have the chance to play. This is an opportunity to discover alternative and contemporary approaches to making marks on clay. It is intended to inform and inspire the maker, the student and the enthusiast, who are working at different levels and promoting a more experimental approach. I want to encourage a practice of testing, documenting and building a visual repertoire of surface techniques. There will be decorative methods that may be familiar, but the aim is to delve deeper and shed new light on the potential of each process, with alternative ways of incorporating them on to a ceramic surface.

Making constructed stamps can be very addictive, and the opportunity to use a variety of materials and found objects is very appealing.

The images and demonstrations will illustrate how to apply them, but treat this as merely a starting point, the chance to interpret each technique and make them your own. Surface decoration can be intense, busy or detailed, but can also be subtle, simply creating a quality of surface that is pleasing and tactile. The methods of decoration and mark-making are a culmination of the many years teaching students of different ages at different levels, and through experiments for my own work. I have also contacted makers from all over the world, who have a passion for decorative techniques and have generously shared their discoveries.

I have always had a fascination for experimental ceramic processes and techniques, which has helped develop my teaching methods but has also informed my practice. Throughout my teaching career I have worked with students who would eagerly take up the challenge of creating a form in different ways, but would often struggle when it came to decorating the surface, and would find it rather daunting.

Developing a decorative surface can take as much time and effort as it does to create a ceramic form. However, it is crucial to take that extra time at this stage of the process. The embellishment of a piece can be the deciding factor for a successful outcome. So many ideas can come from decorative experiments and, more importantly, the mishaps. Creating a diversity of surfaces is a solid way to help to build up a body of work.

Experiment with as many techniques as you can – that is the fun part. Keeping a record of all your experiments is worthwhile, alongside a collection of small fragments and test pieces that will help to keep all that information fresh. It is so easy to miss those little gems. But beware: it can turn into a lifelong passion.

A sophisticated way to apply paper stencils by potter Georgie Gardiner, who can achieve crisp, graphic detail in her pieces.

The meandering doodles made by a hot glue pen can produce detailed embossed linear marks when pressed into soft clay.

Fragments of dried, coloured china clay slip are embedded into a clay surface, using the American artist Mitch Lyon’s inventive clay printing technique on a fabric substrate.

Embossed printed detail with underglaze colour and bespoke sterling silver fittings. Part of the author’s Tension Visuelle collection of sculpture to wear.

Smoky graphic marks have been created using the fast-firing process, by applying paper stencils and clay slip to mask a biscuit fired surface.

CHAPTER 1

SKETCHBOOKS AND DESIGN

Making and drawing have always been important to me, and the two processes have become more entwined over the years. Drawing, alongside printmaking and collaging, has a crucial role in the development of my work. It is an activity that I take for granted, and is an integral part of my practice. It is also something I enjoy. Drawing can help find forms and make decisions regarding all aspects of making and decorating.

Inspiration can be found in the most unlikely places. Discovered in the garden of the museum, where the author’s studio is based.

Reference is such an important factor of the whole process, but assembling a design vocabulary is just half of the story. Imagery that is inspiring will assist the building of resources in the shape of structures, patterns, texture and surfaces. The way to develop an approach to design, using any type of decoration, is through exploration and practice. Remember, drawing is not always about accuracy: one of its functions can be to get ideas out of your head and on to the page. Source material can also take the form of the written word, a story or poem, a sound or a scene in a film. These can be recorded as part of the research and developed into visual notations, or transcribed using collage or printmaking techniques, for example.

A sketchbook is an ideal place to start developing the sort of marks that can be made on the clay surface. Making versions of the patterns or textures on paper first can be a practice run, and the more information that is accumulated at the start, will give you the confidence to translate those ideas on to the clay.

SKETCHBOOKS: WHERE TO START

Ideas cannot be easily grasped out of thin air – they take time to develop, but it is a pleasant process. Grayson Perry, when enthusing about drawing, talks about ‘becoming familiar with your voice on paper’ (from the television series Channel 4 [first season] Grayson’s Art Club, May 2020). He says about his approach: ‘I draw as a collagist, juxtaposing images and styles of mark-making from many sources’ (from The Guardian and Observer Guide to Drawing, September 2009).

Inspiration can be absorbed from personal obsessions and different cultures. Subjects can range from the natural world, contemporary architecture, graffiti, ancient maps or folk art, for example. It is important to choose a subject that will keep you interested and help you to move forwards with the research.

Graffiti are often intended to be quite brash or edgy, but this tag engraved on to the glass at a bus-stop shelter has resulted in a more refined image.

Keep a sketchbook or small notebook to hand, and take it everywhere. Document gallery and museum visits, keeping a record of those special exhibitions. This can even include the tickets, the postcards and the photographs taken on your phone. Select the best images, maybe crop some of the detail and print them out, let them see the light of day. Any found fragments that are collected, as part of these journeys, can also be included.

I like to work on different scales in various sizes of sketchbook, from a square pocket-sized one, up to as large as A3, which, if using a double page, is 2ft (60cm) across. The larger books are more flexible if they are ring bound, and especially helpful if you want to add paper collage and found fragments to your pages, as I do.

Using different sorts of paper can change the outcome, such as a dense smooth paper, alongside tracing paper or sheets that have text on them. Sturdy envelopes provide a perfect surface for ideas. The artist Margaret Mellis, who made remarkable assemblages from found materials, also completed over seventy drawings on opened-out envelopes. The physical nature of their shapes dictated the design, often incorporating the printed patterns found on the inside of the envelope.

ALISON MILNER AND HER SKETCHBOOKS

Alison is passionate about research and has used the same type of A5 hardback sketchbook since 2005. She uses one about every six months, which works out about twenty pages a month. They are filled with copious notes and very loose diagrammatic-type drawings, with images that she has printed out, which document her work in progress. They are for her eyes only. She keeps them all together on a shelf and has thirty so far. They are not in any order, but she puts a small picture on the front of each one, which roughly indicates the time they were made. Crammed full of ideas, Alison refers to them constantly. This has progressed into an occasional series of continuous collages in concertina-style sketchbooks, which she refers to as ‘streams of consciousness’.

Alison’s ideas sometimes progress into a series of continuous collages, presented in concertina-style sketchbooks, which she refers to as ‘streams of consciousness’. (PHOTO: STEVE SPELLER)

She uses her large coffee table at home as a physical sketchbook, placing her ceramic components into different groups, using it to work through her ideas, often incorporating found objects and constantly rearranging them. Alison has always been a collector and an arranger of objects. She collects natural forms and simple man-made objects, which are mostly functional and usually made with one material and with processes she can understand. She rarely spends much money on her collections, and she likes the notion of her ceramics mingling unobtrusively with these objects. In her book Inspirational Objects, which is a visual dictionary of her collection, she explains that:

…the objects are arranged into a narrative, which only really exists in my mind; objects make connections with other objects, sometimes through their geometry, sometimes by their manufacture, and sometimes by their human associations.

Alison describes herself as a designer of ‘2D for 3D’. She has worked with a wide range of materials, having originally trained in furniture design. Learning about materials and extending processes through collaboration with other makers and manufacturers has been an essential part of her practice. After ten years of working with other ceramicists, she decided to make her own collection. She challenged herself to see how inventive she could be with two simple processes and three different clays. This project evolved into the ‘Nature Table’ ceramic collection.

Work from part of the ‘Nature Table’ series. Alison Milner considers herself a collector and arranger of objects. (PHOTO: STEVE SPELLER)

She says of her work:

I like minimalism and patterns, the geometry of nature, slight imperfection, detail and space. I like things to have a place and belong to a group. I like to rescue mistakes and accept imperfections. I like fitness of purpose, improvisation and play, and I like to understand materials. I like ‘looking’.

SKETCHBOOK DESIGN

Sketchbook Diaries

This approach to visual research resembles a diary, and some artists and makers prefer the narrative format of a journal, working on ideas on a regular basis. The flow of ideas is often interwoven into events of their everyday life. It can take the form of a scrapbook with fragments of mixed media, collage and text, or purely just drawings. Some will challenge themselves to contribute to a creative instalment every day. So often these hidden gems are used religiously by their owner, but so often are not shared with others. The artist Michael Craig-Martin wrote about his love of drawings and using sketchbooks, and remarked: ‘They are the great secret of Art’ (from ‘Drawing the Line’, South Bank Centre 1995: catalogue for a national touring exhibition of drawing selected by the artist).

Artist and maker Susan Coleman has kept a visual diary for about seven years, and uses it partly as a reminder of family events, but glimpses into her home life are intertwined with her ideas for her illustrative ceramics.

Drawings from Susan Coleman’s diaries: her playful, illustrative style generates a continuous narrative about her life and the designs for her ceramics.

Themed Sketchbooks

I have often concentrated on specific subjects or themes for my sketchbooks and have developed this idea with students as a starting point for their projects. This disciplined approach can be very helpful as it can sharpen your observational skills and make you look more carefully. There is so much that we miss, and through these projects you can develop an interest in the obvious but often overlooked quality of things. Start by observing the hidden beauty in the natural and man-made environment.

Textures and Surfaces

Textures and surfaces make excellent subjects as there is an unlimited supply of options all around. Interesting textures are everywhere, and the more you look, the more you will find. These can be translated into drawings, rubbings, photographs, images from magazines and postcards. This can also include found fragments, samples of embossed or embroidered fabric, decorative paper, or even plastic packaging.

Take some care as to how to display them in your sketchbook. This decision-making is part of the creative process and may help to inform the ways this information is used. Cropping or editing an image can be a way to isolate the area that most interests you. Leave spaces on the page so that different versions can be made of the selections. Re-create them as a line drawing in ink, a monoprint, or a torn paper collage for example. Each time an image is reproduced, it can transform and develop, changing the proportions, reversing the image, or creating a repeat pattern.

Graphic Detail

Words and symbols can be found on almost every surface – on buildings, on shop windows, in layers of torn posters on old billboards and spray-painted graffiti on weathered walls. Road markings are a particular favourite of mine, and it is always a surprise that there are so many variations. Some have been worn over time and have often been renewed or repositioned, and have created some wonderful textural surfaces.

Utility traces and road markings hold a particular fascination, and the patinas that develop over time are very enviable.

These temporary marks and symbols are known as utility traces, which are codes to denote the position of cables and pipes below the surface. These are often in different colours and can be very decorative. Architectural detail on buildings and pavements is another great source of graphic inspiration, and presents a wealth of information that would translate well into ideas for decoration.

CRAIG UNDERHILL AND HIS USE OF SKETCHBOOKS

Craig is a maker with a fascination for graphic detail, and his textural and painterly approach is constantly influenced by his environment:

I think I’m drawn to graffiti because I like the way it pushes the shape of letters to an extreme so they become almost unrecognizable. It’s also the human intervention in the landscape that interests me, as well as the inevitable richness that is built up over time as images are applied over each other, while the effect of time causes constant, slow erosion. I like the shape and texture of writing rather than what it says.

He was introduced to the process of using sketchbooks while studying Ceramics at Harrow, and still has the thirty or so sketchbooks completed during that time; furthermore his visual research has remained a vital part of his working process today. He now works in larger sketchbooks, A3 size, which he uses to explore ideas, solve visual problems, and experiment with composition. It gives him the freedom to acknowledge that there is no wrong answer, or any specific way of doing something. He says of this process:

My sketchbook is a place to take risks, and the discoveries that come from this help me to direct and make progress with my work. I feel I can work in a non-precious and more spontaneous way in my sketchbook, and this frame of mind is critical if artistic progress is to be made. My sketchbooks are also a place to experiment with unfamiliar materials and techniques to create visual imagery that could feed into or be adapted to work with ceramic materials.

The wealth of information that Craig has produced in his sketchbooks over three decades is vast – and these sketchbooks are still important to him and serve as an invaluable source of reference. Looking back through his sketchbooks he finds they serve as a diary of his ideas, thoughts and experiences.

Craig Underhill’s sketchbooks are of prime importance to him, and a place where he can take risks and make discoveries.

A detail of one of Craig Underhill’s painterly vessels that explores the same elements he aspires to in his sketchbooks.

Pages from Craig’s sketchbooks reflect his fascination for graphic detail, and his experiments with unfamiliar materials and techniques.

Found Objects

Collecting seems to be implanted into every artist’s DNA, regardless of their discipline. The objects can be natural or man-made, and have been discovered and kept because of some fundamental interest the artist sees in them. They are used for inspiration – it may be that they have a tactile surface or an unusual shape that is so alluring it could be cast, used as a maquette, or pressed into soft clay. Sometimes an object is just so appealing that having it there in the collection can be the only reason.

Collecting can be an important part of a maker’s research because they consider such objects to be essential to their ideas and methods of making – an integral part of their practice. How they collate, store, or even display these items is often a key element of their whole creative practice.

The author’s collection of her favourite feathers, with a string of shell and sea-glass fragments, which are pinned up on her studio wall.

Vintage fishing floats are another of the author’s passions, and she collects them for the winning combination of inspiring forms and tactile, colourful surfaces.

Alison Milner’s ‘Imaginary Tile Company’ collection epitomizes the allure of found objects, and her skill in placing and presenting the fragments. (PHOTO: STEVE SPELLER)

Ancient tools and fragments of machinery have wonderful sculptural qualities, the metal surface having the ability to develop rich patinas over time.

A selection of the fragments that the author displays on a shelf in her studio, and which serve as a constant narrative to her visual research.

SARAH RAYNER AND HER USE OF SKETCHBOOKS

Sarah lives in the Australian bush on the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. From there she collects small specimens of interest: tiny things that draw her in and require close observation, mostly seedpods and tiny native flowers. She is drawn to the understated and often overlooked objects in hidden spaces and places. This micro view leads to a fascinating world of intricacy and complexity. Sarah says of her collections:

I’m inspired by the sheer ingenuity and tenacity of plants and the clever methods they have evolved to attract pollinators. Of particular interest are the reproductive organs, primarily the Gynoecium, a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. I scrutinize and dissect these amazing little structures, examining the form, textures, cracks and crevices, and the way layers peel back to reveal sensuous interiors.

Sarah Rayner in her studio, sorting and collating plant fragments and seed pods; this is a crucial part of her creative practice. (PHOTO: FLORE VALLERY-RADOT)

This process of collecting and collating Australian native seedpods and flowers is a crucial aspect of Sarah’s practice. Each week she arranges fresh native flowers she has picked from her garden and displays them in small glass bottles on her work desk to observe them closely and admire them.

She has a huge collection of seedpods in varying stages of maturity. Some are picked during the very early stages of development, whilst others are fully matured. Seeing how they grow, watching the varying stages of development and the way they harden, twist and burst open, she finds inspirational. She regularly arranges a selection of seedpods, experimenting with their relationships to one another, through shape and form, and creating a new order and dialogue. She considers it a taxonomy with no scientific basis; it is a form of play, of research and observation integral to her practice.

Drawing the seedpods is an important part of the process. The sketches are not realistic representations: they document specific features, preliminary ideas and translations of her observations and research. She edits the essential shapes and characteristics of multiple pods, often merging them into hybrid forms.

Her research flourishes into three-dimensional ceramic sculptures possessing aspects of plant life, which are simultaneously familiar yet strange, real and imagined. Sarah says of her porcelain pieces ‘Many layers of musing are stored inside these little objects; sometimes they are sealed up and other times little bits are revealed.’

Drawing the seedpods is an important part of the process for Sarah, and translating them into creative plant forms with porcelain. (PHOTO: GREG PIPER)

Sarah regularly arranges small posies of the native flowers collected from her garden, to display, observe and record at her work desk.

Sarah’s renditions of these hybrid organic forms are part real, part imagined plant life, and they emerge as intricate porcelain structures.

CATHERINE WHITE’S SKETCHBOOKS

Catherine White lives and works in Warrington, Virginia, located just forty-seven miles from Washington DC. She is an experienced maker with a long-standing career working with clay, which is inexorably woven into a daily practice of painting and drawing. She is constantly seeking a poetic language of material, shape and surface. Her work makes references to the landscape in an abstract way, through the raw materials she collects and her experiments with clay bodies and firing techniques. Catherine explains the importance of this approach:

My sketchbooks are how I process my life. They are nets that catch my experiences, images, thoughts and ideas. I have different styles of books for distinct aspects of my work. I have a letter-sized book in which I alternate a page of longhand writing with an image page.

Catherine works in these sketchbooks five days a week and considers them ‘a confidant’. She explores her ideas or ‘spews out her emotions’. They are rough and ready, not intended for anyone else to see.

Then I have a book that is strictly images, that accumulates collaged drawings. Each page starts with a coat of colour; facing pages are often mirrored, although different. On some painted pages I practise brushwork or experimental mark-making.

Catherine developed a method of mixing acrylic paint with methylcellulose, so the paint would mimic how she works with clay slips. This way she can effectively explore ideas on paper before she commits to clay. Ultimately the image books are bulging, the pages all pasted together into a wonderful fat mess. Catherine often cuts up pages and glues them in as backgrounds for imagined plates and bowls. Through this cutting and pasting of paper, she realized that she loved it when the marks moved off the page. So she began working with clay sizes larger than the desired final size, so she could initially draw beyond the frame. By cropping after completing the drawing, she achieved a fluid quality to the mark-making.

The final three notebooks she uses are more technical. She has a clay notebook where she records what she is making, documenting weights, shapes, and sizes of wet work. Then if she needs to remake something or shift dimensions, she has a record of where she started. With a shrinkage rate of almost 15 per cent with the processes she uses, this has proved helpful. In the studio she shares with her husband and fellow maker Warren Frederick, there is a clay notebook with clay body recipes, a slip and glaze notebook that records all their material combinations so they can choose to duplicate or adjust as desired. Details of Catherine’s decorative technique using raw materials are featured in Chapter 5.

A detail from one of Catherine White’s collaged sketchbooks, where she practises brushwork and experimental mark making.

Catherine constantly explores her ideas on paper, often cutting up and gluing together collaged fragments before she commits the design to clay.

Drawing, painting and keeping sketchbooks are integral components to Catherine White’s work as a potter, and are part of her daily studio practice. (PHOTO: WARREN FREDERICK)

A glimpse into the sketchbooks that Catherine calls her ‘confidant’, where she explores her ideas and lets her emotions flow on to the page. (PHOTO: WARREN FREDERICK)

CHAPTER 2

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

Potters are passionate about their tools, and many makers have created and developed their own personal collections over time. Some of the most useful implements can be the ones used for creating a surface decoration, and the right kind of tool can make all the difference. There is an abundance of tools and objects that can be used to create a variety of marks and embellishments on the clay surface. Some will be multifunctional and can be used across all the making methods. This is something that evolves as each maker chooses which creative path to take.

There has been a long tradition for potters to improvise when making their own tools, often from found objects or even adapting a tool that was designed for another function. My list is based on my ceramic practice and the sort of tools I use most days, including ones I think will be relevant to the types of techniques explored in this book. It may seem like a long list, but keep in mind it should only act as a guide. Tools are very personal to the individual maker, often dictated by the methods they choose to explore. Feel free to amend, adapt and introduce your own personal favourites.

Chris Weaver carves smooth undulating pottery tools from driftwood that has been washed ashore: he considers this to be an important part of his practice.

ESSENTIAL TOOLS AND ITEMS

Brushes

One of the most essential items, brushes can be used at different stages of making and for an array of decorative techniques. It is useful to have an assortment of sizes and shapes at your disposal. There is a huge range available, so be selective, as they can be expensive. The style of brushes chosen will depend on the type of work, and what tasks are required. The ones I find most useful are a mop-head brush, flat lacquer brushes of different sizes, and a range of pointed wash brushes. Another way to explore more experimental marks is to make your own brushes, which is explained in detail in Chapter 4.

Chris Weaver’s passion for making his own tools over the years has developed into a practical and enviable collection.

Brushes are an essential part of any potter’s tool kit, and having a variety of shapes and sizes will cover an array of practical and decorative tasks.

Knives

A thin-bladed precision knife such as a scalpel is the type I find to be the most useful. The replaceable blades ensure it stays sharp and precise. There is a variety of potter’s knives that have a tapered blade, available from ceramic suppliers. Another alternative is to sharpen a section of a hacksaw blade to create a sharp-angled edge, which can be resharpened and has the bonus of a serrated section. This resembles a Kiridashi knife, which I have recently discovered and enjoy using: it is a traditional wood-carving knife that is widely used in Japan, ‘kiridashi’ meaning ‘to carve out’. It has a sharp blade and is often used as an all-purpose utility knife.

Potter’s knives can take on different forms, often adapted from other tools. The Kiridashi-style craft knives, far left, are a new addition.

Plaster Blocks

Casting blocks of plaster in different sizes will prove to be invaluable, and ideal for creating different printing techniques. Most of the projects will require one or more panels, and they should be no smaller than A4 – but often a larger panel will allow more freedom. If there is space available, it is worth casting a generous block up to 2ft (61cm) square. Details about mixing plaster and casting blocks are fully explained in Chapter 5.

Silicone Ribs

Ribs are a very useful tool and come in different shapes and sizes, and ranges of flexibility. They are great for smoothing, but prove very effective when it comes to decorating; they are more durable and versatile than the traditional rubber kidney.

Stainless Steel Ribs

These metal ribs also come in varying degrees of flexibility and different shapes, but some are available with micro-fine teeth, which allows the maker to do detailed finishing.

Silicone and stainless-steel ribs are available in different shapes and in a range of flexibility; they are often the most frequently used tools.

Plastic Credit Cards

Many companies issue plastic cards now, and as these expire they become a great resource for the potter. They can be used just like a rib, but the added advantage is that they can be easily cut and adjusted to any size or shape for specific tasks.

Plastic cards are readily available and have the advantage of being flexible enough to be cut with scissors and adapted for stencils and shaping edges.

Pony Roller

This dual hardwood roller is used for flattening or smoothing clay and is the perfect tool to use with the slip transfer techniques. They are available through most ceramic suppliers, but catering companies have identical versions that are used for rolling out pastry and pizza dough.

Rolling Pins and Wooden Guides

I use a variety of sizes, so it is useful to have a larger one, a regular size and a mini one, when dealing with smaller fragments of clay. Roller guides can be used to control the thickness of the clay, and wooden battening works well; they are available in different thicknesses from builder’s merchants.

Another essential item for the dedicated hand builder; having a variety of rolling pins in different sizes should cover all requirements.

Mallets and Paddles

These wooden tools are a simple solution to shaping, forming and compressing clay, and most potters will have a selection in their tool kit. Although there is a variety available from pottery suppliers, vintage plumber’s tools and wooden spatulas designed for the kitchen are among the alternative versions that potters prefer to use.

Vintage plumber’s tools, mallets, domestic wooden spatulas and spoons are a popular choice among potters.

Rolling Out Cloth or Board

Use a smooth but heavy-duty fabric to roll out clay, as it will prevent it from becoming creased as it starts to get damp. I also use panels of chipboard, as the clay does not stick to this surface, and it helps to dry the rolled-out clay evenly.

Sponges

A standard washing-up sponge is very versatile: it can be used to improve a ceramic surface, but can easily be cut into shapes for stamps. The most effective type has a heavy-duty green scourer over one side, which can be used to distress a surface. A range of smooth finishing sponges and natural sea sponges are available from ceramic suppliers and can be used for more delicate tasks.

Sponges are another important part of a potter’s kit; while some are ideal for creating sponge stamps, others can be used to smooth and refine a surface.

Sgraffito and Stylus Tools

These precision tools are available through ceramic suppliers, and can be purchased in sets. They have a precise cutting edge and can be used to sculpt, engrave and incise detail. Found objects such as drill bits, large nails, a compass or a large darning needle can be useful substitutes.

These engraving tools are ideal for intricate carving, cutting and refining detail, having the ability to create a variety of marks.

Wooden Modelling Tools

These are one of the most comforting tools to use. Certain shapes I use constantly, and they improve with age, with the wood wearing slightly – they are a pleasure to handle. I will often sand the end if they have started to change shape through constant use. I will often improvise with found fragments of wood, which is often dictated by a certain task or mark I am trying to achieve.

Modelling tools are not only pleasant to use, but come in a vast array of shapes and sizes; found wooden fragments can also be added into the mix.

Chris Weaver’s Modelling Tools

Chris Weaver is one of New Zealand’s most accomplished makers of tableware, and has built his studio and kilns on the remote west coast of South Island where he lives, which is rich in natural resources and scenic beauty. A skilled carpenter, Chris makes his own modelling tools with driftwood, and fabricates sturdy curved handles from Kiwi hardwood for his jars, dishes and teapots. He takes time and great care in making the handles and the tools, as they are an important part of his practice: ‘I find driftwood to make my own tools from the wood that has been swept down the flooded rivers and washed up on local beaches. I use these tools not as replacement for, but as an extension of my fingers, and they allow me to do more.’ The shapes are dictated by the wood itself, following the grain and the natural washed, worn kinks in the wood.

Chris Weaver has carved fragments of driftwood to create very tactile ribs, which have developed a patina with use.

Chris Weaver has extended his wood-making skills to create exquisitely made curved handles for his faceted teapots.

Wooden Spout and Hole Makers

I have discovered different types of this tapered wooden tool, designed for other purposes, as they resemble a garden dibber used for sowing seeds and a spurtle, a Scottish kitchen tool used for stirring soups and porridge. They are such pleasing shapes, and although there are versions that can be bought from a potter’s supplies, I often look to specialist makers for a more personal approach – I have recently worked with a woodworking team based in Scotland (details of Slate Road Designs can be found in the list of specialist contributors).

These tactile wooden tools are used to shape and make teapot spouts; their tapered forms can also make perfectly neat holes in different sizes.

Serrated Tools

Serrated tools can be used for a variety of tasks as they come in different shapes and are available in wood, metal or plastic, making them very versatile. They are ideal for scoring, scraping, texturing, refining, shaping and removing clay.

Serrated tools are yet another useful addition to a potter’s toolkit, as not only can they be used in a variety of decorating techniques, but they are also useful tools in the making process.

Kristina Riska’s Humble Tools

Kristina Riska is one of Scandinavia’s foremost contemporary ceramic artists and a senior member of the Arabia Art Department Society in Helsinki. She creates large-scale, ethereal vessels, inspired by nature and the properties of light and shadow, which embody her rigorous and physical approach to her work. She has a fascination for tools, and the simple domestic fork features heavily in her collection – she uses it to create her surfaces, as different forks give different effects.

She explains: ‘From New York I bought an oyster fork, which has three very sharp teeth and can draw a deep line. Old silver forks have very thin tines and the trail is narrow and delicate. It is a pity that clay eats away silver, so I very seldom use silver forks.’

‘While travelling I always try to find a hardware store or an artist’s accessory shop. I love tools, and I always carry my favourite ones with me if I travel somewhere to work.’ Kristina’s studio is in an old porcelain factory – the factory is now closed, but when she first arrived, production was in full swing. ‘They had a tradition of making tools for different stages of their ceramic process. Knives from saw blades, rubber rings from tyres, and I still use the knives.’ The first tool she made was a wooden hammer when she was working towards her Master’s thesis. She considers a wooden spatula a good tool, especially if it is covered with a soft, thick sock.

The first template Kristina made for cutting holes into the clay was made from plastic and was square in shape. When she wanted to make the holes round or organic, she made the ‘sablons’ from porcelain clay.

After getting tired of cutting holes into the clay walls, she discovered that pressing clay through the shapes she was able to achieve a more interesting effect on the surface. ‘Today,’ she says, ‘many years later, I have hundreds of porcelain templates, “sablons” in different shapes. They are fired as high as possible and I have them attached to a fishing line around my neck to prevent them falling to the floor, as they will break immediately.’

A glimpse into Kristina Riska’s studio. She works on a large scale and hand builds the forms slowly and meticulously, creating the surface as she goes.

Kristina Riska’s ‘special tools’, as she calls them, are a collection of domestic forks, which she uses to engrave the surface. (PHOTO: RIIKKA FRIMAN)

A detail of the textured surface, created with the humble fork, on one of Kristina Riska’s large, handbuilt forms.

Kristina refers to these templates as ‘Precious Tools’, made in high fired porcelain clay, used to create impressions into the clay surface. (PHOTO: RIIKKA FRIMAN)

Kristina Riska at work on one of her large, otherworldly vessels, creating the surface as she builds the form. (PHOTO: REA BRUNILA)

Surform Blades

This tool was designed to work on wood by shaving thin slivers from the surface to shape the form. It resembles a food grater, but is made of steel, with each hole having a cutting edge. Potters have adopted it as an integral part of their tool kit, as it proves to be a popular choice to control and shape a surface evenly. The most effective one comes with a handle and a replaceable curved blade.

Slip Trailers

Precision slip-trailing kits come in a variety of shapes – some have screw tops and there is a selection of different precision nozzles. These work well, and prevent the slip from spurting out while being used. Small plastic squeezy bottles used in the catering industry are a great alternative, and can be adapted to create finer lines.

The trailing kits and applicators allow for more flexibility, are easier to use, and the precision tips can produce unique effects with detailed and fluid designs.

Mark Dally’s Slip-Trailed Decoration

Mark Dally is a ceramic artist who specializes in slip-trailed decoration. He has developed and marketed his own version, after many years of experimenting with different trailers, unable to find one that achieved the consistency he required. (More details about his slip trailer can be found in the specialist suppliers’ section.)

Working from his Staffordshire studio, Mark makes his Black & White Ware in high-fired white earthenware – his tableware includes teapots, mugs, jugs, platters and bowls. He decorates by slip trailing and brushing black and white slips on to paper resist cutouts, layered with slipped dots, drips and linework. He mixes his slip into a thick cream with about 11 per cent stain, and uses a 150-mesh sieve to achieve a smooth, refined mixture for trailing. For his stencil work, Mark uses a carnival paper, which retains its strength when wet and is designed for sculpting, lantern making and parade structures.

An initial training in textiles, and a passion for pattern and design, has influenced his approach to ceramic decoration. He explains that other inspirations…

…come from seventeenth-century Staffordshire slip trailing, mid-century Stoke-on-Trent industrial ceramics such as ‘Homemaker’ by Ridgway and Carlton Ware ‘Walking Ware’, and the sci-fi anachronisms of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s animations and comics. I like to combine traditional craft and contemporary techniques in a modern take on Staffordshire slipware and flatbacks.

A large platter by designer maker Mark Dally, who is a skilful slip trailer and has developed and manufactured his own slip trailer.

Sieves and Lawns