Do you like my pottery?

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here's another one! I tried doing something interesting with the foot but it didn't quite work out. it likes to wobble.

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here's another organic one. I'm not too happy with how the glaze turned out. if I had to do it again, I'd use white stoneware or some shit instead of terracotta.

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sunrise plate!

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sunset bowl! I used waaaaay too much clear glaze.

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I made this before I learned how to wheel throw, so it was actually made out of slabs.

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and my current pieces. I tried sgraffito properly for the first time. the black under glaze was supposed to be black ;_;. I used 7g/100g of white stoneware. should I use more mason stain or should I use porcelain as the base for the underglaze instead?

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and I made this today. I was basically trying to emulate the cup from the op, but with a wider work. I plan on carving some kind of design on to it. something organic would work better, I suppose. it's gonna be a gift, though, so maybe a heart will do.

>>2921524
>wider body,

>>2921498
I've always liked putting a glaze around the mouth, but it needs more contrast IMO.
>>2921503
Shoulda photographed this on a different background, but it works much better than the other one doing the same thing.
>>2921506
>>2921507
These colors are really just ugly. Maybe if you'd put down white slip first, but that green and red are probably just too much together.
>>2921508
I actually really like this.

You've got some interesting ideas OP, the clock is pretty cool and the indentations on the vase are nice. I think you could stand to experiment with your glazes a bit more, and some of these, like the plates and the bowl here >>2921500 are not as interesting shapes as some of the others.

I've never done pottery, but these look pretty cool. I agree with the other anon that if you got some nicer colours and glazes these would be really nice. I'm not a fan of the clock though.

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>>2921532
wow, I didn't expect actual criticism!

>These colors are really just ugly. Maybe if you'd put down white slip first, but that green and red are probably just too much together.
oh, really? I didn't even realize the underglazes colors looked that bad together. what I didn't like about those pieces was the clear coat. I'm never using clear coat on terracotta again. I put clear coat on like five my my red pieces and I just threw most of them away. ugh.

I'm obviously still a beginner. the bowl and plate i posted were honestly my first ever, so I haven't even begin to imagine experimenting with those forms.

and, yeah, I'm bad with glazes. I usually just dip my pieces. I can never think of anything else to do. I guess I just need to study more. my next pieces will probably focus on more complex sgrafitto designs (or is it mishima? I always get them confused).

thank you so much for the critique! I don't know anyone else who's into pottery, so this is really really helpful.

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>>2921563
>I didn't even realize the underglazes colors looked that bad together. what I didn't like about those pieces was the clear coat. I'm never using clear coat on terracotta again.
Yeah, clear without some sort of slip or underglaze usually tends to not look very good IMO. Obviously it depends on the clay, but unless the color looks really good to begin with a clear coat generally doesn't help.
>and, yeah, I'm bad with glazes. I usually just dip my pieces. I can never think of anything else to do.
Just experiment with it. I usually went to the test tiles to see what glazes had interesting interactions and worked from there. Usually dipped in multiple glazes can produce interesting effects, and you can just dip parts of a piece. If you're feeling really adventurous you could paint glaze on with a brush, even.

I think it's worth noting that some glazes will change depending on how thick they are(we had a floating blue glaze that needed at least two coats to show any blue, and single coat just looked like a slightly darker clear coat), so test tiles are going to be your friend.
>I don't know anyone else who's into pottery, so this is really really helpful.
I took two semesters at community college, it's a lot of fun. I'd like to get back into it but I don't have the cash to throw at any of the local places right now.

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>>2921583
>I think it's worth noting that some glazes will change depending on how thick they are(we had a floating blue glaze that needed at least two coats to show any blue, and single coat just looked like a slightly darker clear coat),
that's so relatable! I dipped one piece in our mat clear coat for way too long and it ended up looking blue! the look on his face when I told him it was supposed to be a clear coat was priceless.
>I took two semesters at community college
I've been doing it on and off for like two years... I've been doubling down lately, I'm really slow at learning this kind of stuff. plus, I think I get too autistic with how thin and even my walls are. it really limits the size of my pieces since they always collapse due to how thin the walls are.

anyway, thanks again for the feedback, anon! I now realize that glazes are definitely something I need to work on and experiment with, especially looking at that nice cup you have. I have one question, though: just out of sheer curiosity, what kind of kiln did you fire that with? induction? gas?

>>2921604
damn, I need to proof read. I wish I was at home and had a proper keyboard. sorry for the typos.

>>2921516
Yes, use porcelain as the base for the stain. You cannot trust a recipe without testing it out first, and I recommend measuring both of the ingredients dry. Here's a quick and dirty way to run a 2 ingredient line blend:
take 100g dry base
add 1g stain, mix, apply to labeled tile or whatever. This is 1%
add 1g more stain to batch, mix, apply. 2%
repeat until you think you've gone past black-black.

Coloring slips with mason stains usually takes a lot.

>>2921507
Not a fan of the decoration, but I love the glaze thickness variation. The partially obscured milkiness is nice and fat. You can do this intentionally by fully submerging a piece in glaze
quickly, then pulling it out quickly at first, exponentially slowing down the removal as you go. The downward side that's left in the glaze longest accumulates the most glaze. You can get a beautiful thickness gradient.

>>2921503
This one's fun. Method?

>>2921604
>it really limits the size of my pieces since they always collapse due to how thin the walls are.
I had the opposite problem, most of my walls are too thick.
>just out of sheer curiosity, what kind of kiln did you fire that with? induction? gas?
Induction. I've seen some really neat stuff come out of wood fired kilns, but I've not had the chance to try it myself.

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here's one of the terracotta pieces I trashed. it has a clear coat over a blue glaze. I bet you could get some really cool and drippy pieces this way.
>>2921622
thanks for the mason stain tips!
>i love the glaze thickness variation
god, that's what everyone seems to say about it. personally, I hate it. I think I'll try your gradient method on a piece though. i can imagine that looking nice on a tall vessel or something.
>method?
throw piece, wait until it's around leather dry, trim, firmly rub the sides with your fingers until you get your desired shape. that's how I did it. I think you have to take your time with rubbing the base into the form you want; otherwise it'll probably crack.
my fingers actually got quite sore from that piece because I let it get too dry.

>>2921639
Yeah, it's a cool glaze combo. You should harness the power with some resists.

Ah. you're pushing in. Thought you might have been pushing out with a stick. Why I asked. If you're getting cracking, you may be waiting a little too long. After trimming, you can always wrap a damp paper towel around it to re-soften the walls and have an easier time. I once did a series of big spherical pots with pillowed, vertical lobes. I found the best way to do it was on a soft-leather wall with a big round rib that I rolled up the surface while pushing. Padding the rib's edge with thin foam prevented cut marks. I had a more open rim, so I stuck a tapered cup in it to keep it from warping.

It's funny when people love a piece you hate. Always say you did it on purpose and start to talk up the (failed) process of how you did it/your inspiration. It's good salesmanship practice for later. Dumb little stories close a sale.

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>>2921661
thank you for all the advice, anon! the shaping advice will help a lot because the form you described is really similar what I really want to make someday and the thing about playing off flaws as deliberate features is definitely true.

>>2921998
You're welcome. I was half joking though. Never look at failures as flaws or disappointments, but as a mismatching of your expectations with the results. The materials always behave within a defined set of chaotic possibilities, and are thus not completely unpredictable. When something unexpected (to you) happens in the kiln, treasure it, study it. Can you set up the conditions to replicate as part of a controlled design? Do you understand it?

Love the medium. Observe what it likes to do with less intervention. Listen to its nature and come to a mutually beneficial agreement with it. There is a way to do anything you can imagine if you can communicate with the stuff.

Oh, and you had it right. Sgraffito is carving through an applied surface layer to reveal the base layer; mishima is the Japanese term for inlay, which is carving into the base and filling it with a contrasting material.

They look ok but desu I know nothing abouy pottery and dont think i could tell the difference between "bad" pottery and "good" pottery. Whats an example of good pottery?

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>>2923720
That's a hard question to answer, so I'm just going to dump some pieces I like. Personally, besides being visually interesting, I think how it feels in the hand(for cups and bowls and the like) is really important.

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>>2923768

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>>2923771

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>>2923773

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>>2923776

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>>2923777

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>>2923781

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>>2923784

>>2923784
It looks unique and graceful. I like this one

>>2923800
It is cool, isn't it? A little bird bark. Let's make bird boats!

>>2921507
Looks like cum

I know nothing about pottery, and frankly, I have no interest in it whatsoever, but some of these look cool, and I wouldn't mind them in the house.

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3D print covered in acrylic. Does this count

>>2923967
looks neat

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>>2923967
No

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not pottery, but ceramic still... little bunrats.

>>2924146
Cute and weird.

>>2924146

Are they supposed to look like fetuses?

>>2925960
They're obviously naked little bunrats. I want to know what they eyes are made of.

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>>2925967
the eyes are the same material as the rest, I just painted the eyes with black acrylic and added a glossy coat to them

>>2925954
they sure are

Wow wtf is this? a good thread on /ic/. Weird.

Do you make any western style cups for tea/coffee?

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very simple cup that I made a long time ago.
>>2926698
are you talking to me, the op? I pretty much already posted everything of interest, so no. that sounds like a good thing to make, though, so I'll put it on my very long todo list. a nice, faceted, white tea cup sounds fun to make.

this is off topic, but, ugh, I wish I could devote more time for pottery. I procrastinated a lot of stuff and now I have no time.

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this is a really old piece I had collecting dust. I ended up using is as a test piece for some glaze and it actually turned out looking pretty neat.
>>2926476
woah how'd you get that pink color and texture?

Do you have your own kiln?

>>2926828
no. I only have access to someone else's induction kiln.

>>2926823
Looks like the color and texture of a bisque fired stoneware to me. I see sponge and rib marks. I think that anon painted them afterwards.

>>2926881
yeah, that's what I was thinking, but they look so pink! I guess it's not too crazy. you could just mix terracotta and white stoneware or something.

I've been taking wheelthrowing for about half a semester right now. All of my stuff is ugly, but I'll be able to finally find out how some of my glazed pieces turn out tomorrow.

>>2926881
you're right! that pic is right after that bun came out of the kiln, I painted the other two with gouache

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You all need to get on the Jomon period's level of skill.

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>>2926969
Which was 15 thousand years ago.

>>2926947
they'll turn out even uglier. they always do.

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>>2926969
Not quite as old, but I've always been a fan of the Kofun period haniwa horses. I kinda have a fetish for funerary and ritualistic vessels. Your ceramical smack talk is weak. If you want to see some really funny shit, tell a Korean that you think Japanese pots are the best in the world, or vice versa.

>>2926947
Exciting! Try to take a step back and analyze them. Take notes and learn from the process. I'd be happy to help if you post any photos.

>>2927019
The exception is usually that the ugliest pieces' glazes come out amazing because fuck you.

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>>2927095
>mfw I'm a dead Japanese guy's soul trapped inside a terra cotta pot and countless grave-robbing archaeologists smack my horesbutt at nights in the museum

>>2927687
>>2926947
Sorry. Here we go.
I found out hat I need way more glaze, and I cannot do gradients.

>>2921506
Not a huge fan of the clear glaze with the iron heavy clay body. I'd recommend a white clay body if you want to continue with the illustrations.

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Holy Shit never thought i'd see a pottery thread here, OP I like the sunrise plate, but i think it either needs a heavy white slip, or a white clay body. I would stay away from the clear glaze on that dark clay body.

>>2927766
I like the swirl of the body anon, those are pretty neat.

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Any advice on accomplishing this?

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>>2927752
I totally agree! thats not even the ugliest clear coat piece I have, either. I have a lantern that really looks like someone cummed on it. I've actually been using lighter clays lately. for example, pic related is a gonna be a joke gift for a pretty close friend. It got too dry to really work on so I carved in a silly message. b-mix is really fun to work with, regardless.
>>2927766
that looks badass. I normally hate it when the foot is curved outward like that but you pulled it off beautifully.
>>2927687
promising. that looks waaay better than the crap I pulled out when I first started.

>>2926815
I like the idea of gonkfu tea and all that but the cups are uglier than western style tea cup. The west found the perfect shape for a cup.
I don't like tea but i drink 8 cups of coffee a day in an old mass produced cup my grandma gave me. For water I use a restaurant white teacup for expresso.

Would buy one of these if I ever found someone doing pottery where I live. Thank your government for cheap tools and materials to work on. Here we don't have cheap machines nor cheap fuel to burn so the closer I can find is some mass produced luxury cup that comes from china and costs a lot anyway. Not wrong with mass production or china but I would prefer to buy local if avaliable.

This thread got me really curious. What do I need in order to start a pottery shop? How much is the tablewheel with the best price/performance ratio? What's the best clay that's affordable but allows for a sellable product? How much is a decent kiln?

Really into this idea all of a sudden. plz drop some info on me.

>>2928422
Several hundred dollars each for wheel and kiln. At least.

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>>2921498

I respect pottery making and pottery makers much more than photography and photographers.

Actually takes skill.

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>>2928429
>and pottery makers much more than photography and photographers

can you finish that sentence and put the verb in that you forgot? where you going to say 'make' ? do pottery makers really make big bucks?

>>2928458

>can you finish that sentence and put the verb in that you forgot?


>I respect potters much more than photographers.

Are people who take pictures artists?

>>2928422
>>2928426
To start off, you should look into making your own wheel. There's a ton of DIYs online for it. You may want to try with a kiln as well, but that's up to you.
As for clay, I know you can get Armadillo clays relatively cheap, but there's probably better out there.

>>2928474

oh shit, i'm sorry. i'm a retard.

>>2928494

sweet i'll start digging around

>>2923771
i like this one, looks like a frog

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>>2928494
If you're going for a DIY wheel, might as well go for a Leech style wheel.

>>2928933
Good thing potters are woodworkers

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>>2927687
>>2926947
Here's the rest of the stuff I've made in class.
I'm trying to do my final piece for class, but I cannot even make a tall cylinder. It's causing me a great deal of stress

>>2930429
Tall cylinders are a pain in the ass and the only way to get good at it is too keep throwing. I threw some 56 or so pieces in my second semester of ceramics, and only towards the end did I feel like I was starting to get halfway decent at it.

>>2930432
I'm just at a small community college, so I won't get another semester of this class. It isn't being taught. I may have to take it again in another year, though.

All I want from this class is a cookie jar and this pineapple
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NDSjrq-_1iY

I actually made one of those lidded pieces back when we were starting cups, which was our second assignment

>>2930442
I would say try that pineapple in small scale first, like a mug or something. What he's doing there is fucking hard IMO, so I would work up to it.

What helped me a lot, anon, was relying on my eyes less. You really have to feel the clay, your eyes will deceive you.

>>2930444
>relying on eyes less
This is the only reason I'm able to center well. I close my eyes when centering and opening the clay.

There's a contest at a larger school I plan on transferring to for fully paid tuition and fees. I thought about throwing something small blindfolded.

>>2921563
i like this one, nice colours. do you sell these?

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>>2930429
you guys alright if I post some instruments? This is a dual chamber ocarina. I made it to irritate a friend because every 2 notes is a dissonant note

>>2931255
I was hoping the glazes would mix and it's speckled with iron filings on the tip

>>2931257
it still ended up looking pretty nice
>>2930859
no I keep the good ones and toss the bad ones. I might start giving them away. selling isn't something in interested in until I get better.

>>2931298
wanna give away that dark one? :p

>>2931255
>I made it to irritate a friend because every 2 notes is a dissonant note
You are an evil man

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Anyone else here dig their own clay and refine it themselves?

I don't have a wheel so I'm making do with coiling (fucking sucks it's the worst shit to deal with, so frustrating) and the pinch method (much nicer but only good for making small stuff). I also don't have any access to a real kiln so I've been using a cobbled together thing wrapped in insulation that I burn wood under, it actually does a good job if I feed it for at least 4 hours with small sticks and fan the flames. I've done one test firing of a small cup and one firing of several pieces at once, I haven't had anything break during firing but fast cooling did make one dish crack. Still, not a bad success rate from what I've gathered.

Here's a pot that's waiting to be fired once I make enough pieces and it stops being winter outside. I made it by forming a wide and shallow pinch pot then making a second one that I formed into a ring and places on top, then joined them at the seam and continued shaping the top and rim (couldn't reach the bottom).

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>>2932133
Here's another, this one's been fired and you can really see how the color changes afterwards (previous pot is made of the exact same clay as this thing is). Also a pinch pot, this one has a really thick wall close to the bottom because I couldn't reach with my fingers during forming to thin it out. I also couldn't trim the inside since the neck is narrow. It turned out alright tho.

>>2932133
I would love to dig up clay. My question is what could you even find to temper it with though? I was thinking crushed eggshells mixed with ash maybe?
These look good by the way.

>>2931255
that's hilarious, i love you

>>2932133
what do you do for glazes?

I have a potterly dilemma. Perhaps people here could give me some ideas. I'm going to map the atmospheric reduction pattern in my kiln to try to find shitty spots of unwanted oxidation. I want to fill the kiln entirely with identical objects that are easy and fast to make. I have selected a reliable celadon to cover every object that goes very green in reduction and very yellow in oxidation. I'm thinking about extruding 50 or more 6"H, 3"D cylinders.

Can anyone think of a way to make these classy, salable objects without too much additional time spent on making them, considering that the ones that come out yellow are going straight to the shard pile? Just putting a slab foot on them to make them into crappy tumblers or vases seems kind of dopey. Going further by adding a mug handle seems like too much effort if the firing is a total loss. Ideally, I'd extrude some tubes, add a slab. zip through a couple wet wheel pulls on 'em to make them interesting, and maybe put a handle on there. But again, there's a possibility of half of them being yellow. Those ones will be drop-kicked into a wall.

What would you guys do?

>>2933706
A cylinder is just a cup without a bottom. Just put a bottom on them and sell them as cups.

Does anyone have any advice for processing dug clay? I'm being offered a great deal of it for free.

>>2932215
I didn't temper my clay with anything, I haven't had any trouble. To make temper you'd just make a few clay pucks or other simple clay items and fire them, then crush them as finely as possible and mix them with the clay. The already fired clay won't shrink, and it'll bond with the unfired clay in the kiln as strongly as unfired clay bonds to itself.

>>2932623

I haven't made any yet, my makeshift kiln isn't hot enough for glazes to work out anyway. I've just been polishing the pots once they get firm but before they dry completely, makes the surface very smooth and once fired it turns glossy.

To make glazes I'm pretty sure you just mix wood ash with clay and find yourself a good ratio after test firing a few different batches. The ash acts as a flux and lowers the melting point of the clay, supposedly.

>>2933706

What kind of fuel does your kiln use? Is is electric?

To prevent oxidation in an electric kiln you could just place a bunch of wood charcoal into the kiln that would consume any oxygen that entered the kiln box, but you'd need to make absolutely sure that wherever your kiln is is very well ventilated.

For a gas/oil fueled kiln you could do the same charcoal trick or increase your fuel flow until you can see smoke/flames coming out of the vents in the kiln, indicating incomplete combustion and thus an oxygen-free environment. That's going to lower your highest achievable temperature somewhat but probably not enough to mess with your firing process.

For a wood/other solid fuel kiln, you could pack your pieces in solid fuel and only have active combustion taking place in the actual combustion chamber of the kiln. You'll know it was successful at eliminating free oxygen if there's still some leftover fuel in the kiln box after the firing. This method is tricky in that it requires the fuel inside the kiln to reahc clay firing temperatures (very very hot) without itself catching fire and pulling oxygen into the kiln box while the clay items are still hot. Therefore you'd need to be able to seal the kiln after active firing is complete, in order to allow both the pots and the fuel to cool far below ignition temperature. The plus side is that the pots will cool much more slowly and evenly if they're surrounded by packing which must also cool down.

>>2934388

Best way is to crush the big lumps until the biggest chunks are about a centimeter across, then mix it into a bucket of water. This is called slaking. Repeat this until the water is noticeably thick, but much thinner than mud. Then you pass this mud through a sieve into another bucket. Once the bucket of slaked and sieved clay is full, empty it into a canvas bag or old pillowcase and hang it up somewhere with airflow. Repeat this whole process, filling up bags and hanging them up, until you've processed all of the clay you want to process.

Now, once the clay is drying in bags, you'll need to check on it for firmness. Check once a week at first, but once they start to firm up check more often, every two or three days. Once the clay seems to be about the right consistency from what you can tell feeling it through a bag, take one down and unwrap it onto some kind of porous but clean surface. I use an old sheet of MDI fiber board, but many people also use plaster slabs or polished concrete. Don't use anything that's going to contaminate the clay. Once you have the clay somewhere that you can work it, you're going to have to mix it with itself. The outside of the ball has dried faster than the inside, so the inside is going to still be gooey. Squish the ball down and fold it on itself over and over until the clay is consistent. If it's too sticky, put it back into the bag for another day or two. If it's where you want it to be, wrap the lump inside a plastic garbage bag and tightly tie it off, the store it somewhere away from things that may puncture the plastic. If it feels too firm, add a SMALL amount of water to the plastic bag and then tie it up; the clay will reabsorb some moisture slowly, but if your clay is too far gone you may want to either mix it with a wetter batch or start over completely by re-slaking it.

>>2926958
Well they're sweet. Do you usually make cute things?

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This one is one large single chambered ocarina. It's shaped like a B

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>>2935590
It's also obviously unfinished. It needs to be sanded and glazed

>>2935590
>>2935596
What an odd shape.

How do you determine where to place the fingerholes?

>>2935611
It was originally just the one half circle but I thought that was too boring so I stuck on the other but that fucked up everything with hole placement. It's also an older piece that's why everything is so rough and ugly

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>>2935855
It does have holes in it but they're nowhere near where they should be, like it's straight fucked
I'm just surprised it didn't explode in the kiln

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I also do some throwing, this is a bell I made while I was waiting for other items to get fired
It was a test mule for glazes

>>2935611
I was reading something once about how to tune an ocarina. It was something about the chamber volume vs. finger hole diameter. Obviously, hole placement should be ergonomic.