Would you like Cream and sugar with that?

I've been experimenting with a few coffee mug shapes lately. Here are a few I like.

Stamps

My friend Jessica makes stamps.
She makes lots of stamps.
I recently asked her to show me how she does it.
You'll need some smooth clay, paper, pencils, scissors, and some tools to carve with. The clay should be smooth like porcelain if you want to have crisp details.
Make some stamp blanks a little bigger than you need the final product to be and let them dry.
Draw your design on paper(computer) and cut it out or just draw right on the clay once it's dry.
Collect some tools to scrape/carve your design.

Now decide if this stamp is going to leave a raised design or an impressed design.
For an impressed design, carve away the clay that surrounds your image. For a raised design, do the opposite. The stamp pictured is for an impressed oak leaf that I plan to use in a variety of ways but mostly where handles attach to pots.

Give it a try.
You should see the cute little owl Jessica made when she showed me how to do this.

Getting to the point

I worked for a summer at a production pottery near San Antonio Texas. When throwing repeat forms it was important to make them a consistent size so we used pointers. Most of us used a wad of clay on the splash pan and stuck some kind of stick into it. It worked but had problems. You could easily bump it and move it off your mark. It couldn't be moved out of your way and back into position. So I decided to make a better pointer. This version is a definite improvement but it will be rebuilt at some point too to make further improvements.





What you can't see in the pic is the base. The upright is a 1/2" pipe and the base is a flange. The flange is clamped to the wheel now but some sort of permanent attachment will follow. The height is set with the bottom block and uses an eye bolt as the set screw. The top block is left free to rotate out of the way until needed. I use a brush as the pointer because it is a lot softer than other options and won't mark the pot being thrown. The brush is held in a hole drilled through the block and is held in place by jamming a toothpick in the hole with the brush handle.
Pointers aren't needed for a lot of throwing but I find them especially useful when making things that need to be a specific size like nesting bowls and drinking mug sets.

Simon Leach is my hero

If you haven't looked up Simon Leach over on Youtube go do it. Search for sleachpots and start watching.
I am a visual learner. I learn by seeing things. For me a picture is worth more than a thousand words.
When I ran across Simon Leach's video clips on you tube I spent the better part of a weekend watching and re-watching. I can't tell you how much I learned. Not only does he describe what he is doing, being the teacher that he is he includes all kinds of technical info that is helpful. Weights, measures, chemistry, firing... he includes the hows and whys behind what he is doing and that only adds to what I have learned. Give it a watch and then put some of it to use in your studio.

Here are a couple of oil bottles Simon inspired me to make. We buy bulk cooking oil and the bottles are too large to keep at the stove. These bottles are the perfect size.

So, Thanks Simon!

The road goes on forever...

And the test tiles never end. (Thank you Joe Ely)

I test a LOT of things. Glazes, Clays, engobes, colorants... Lots of things.
In school we made test tiles by throwing an inverted "t" shaped ring and cutting it into tiles. It worked but was slow. At some point I saw an extruder die for making t shaped tiles and decided I had to make one too. I have a drill press and a small XY table so it was a pretty simple thing to make an extruder die out of some Lexan scrap I kept just for that purpose. I use a 3/16" end mill to cut the lexan then add some details here and there with files and other hand tools.

I include a couple of design features that I think are worth mentioning. The top of the tile has one rounded side and one squared side. This can be helpful to test how a glaze reacts to different shapes underneath and in testing glaze fit. One face has a couple of notches that leave raised ridges on the tile to test how the glaze looks on texture. There is also a ridge on both sides of the tile at the bottom of where I dip the tile to test glaze fluidity. If it runs over the ridge, it is really fluid. The vertical part of the tile narrows where it meets the base. This allows you to snap the tile off after firing. I also punch a hole in the unglazed bottom of the tile to allow it to be hung on a glaze bucket if you want. They are easier to store after snapping off the bottom too.

When I extrude these tiles I use an 8 number stamp to stamp the clay id into the wet clay. I keep a notebook and give a code to each clay I test. Other info gets brushed on with red iron oxide and a small brush.

To cut the tiles I made a cutting board with slots spaced evenly and converted a coping saw. I use 7 strand stainless fishing wire from American Fishing Wire to replace the blade. Cuts like a charm. I bought the wire and small crimp cylinders from Cabelas. The coping saw is a woodworking item I had on hand.

I can extrude 10 feet worth of test tiles in 5 minutes. It is extremely fast.

current work

Here are a couple of views of a teapot in progress. I wanted a small teapot and saw a shape I liked made by Phil Rogers either in one of his books or on his web page. Now I need to make a couple of tea bowls to go with it.

Ambiguous point of origin

It's hard to tell where all this started.
I have always enjoyed working by myself at something. Learning and improving. Concentrating. I have always wanted to learn as much about a subject as possible too. Sometimes concentrating so hard on the small picture that the big picture escapes me. I have applied this methodology to many interests and found that learning a lot about how things work is a great way to make progress. It keeps you involved and there is always more to learn. It can burn you out too.
In hindsight it seems logical that I would arrive in this place and though the road has been witness to the fits and starts, the great leaps, and the missed exits the journey has built me up to the place I now reside.

I am a father. I am a Husband. I am a potter and lover of all things technical. I gravitate towards working alone. I work alone from my friends and family, absorbed in the current project. While this is a great way to get lots of work done it lacks humanity and community. I always want to share my work with others and discuss it and it is towards that goal that this blog is intended. I'll be posting about current projects and pots. I'm very technical so I'll be posting all that kinda stuff too with pics recipes etc.

Enjoy and drop me a line if you see something of interest.