The Process of Throwing, page 2

Here are some interesting new forms I've been making by combining different types of clay together. I start by taking three different clay bodies and cutting them into small sections. In the foreground there is "desert buff", a clay which fires to beige or tan in the finished piece. The pieces in the middle are porcelain, which fires to a very pure white, with a smooth, glassy surface. The brown pieces in the back are "brownstone", a very gritty and rough body, that fires to a reddish-brown in the finished piece. If these pieces are combined and thrown together, they will create a cup or vessel with distinct regions of color.

One piece of each type are combined into one chunk, taking care to squeeze out as much air as possible:

I have made larger sections of porcelain and brownstone, separated by thinner layers of the buff clay in between. These pieces are kind of challenging to throw! The different types of clay absorb water at different rates, and therefore some part of the vessel are softer than others during the process of shaping. Porcelain, for instance, absorbs water very quickly and becomes extremely soft. But the brownstone remains pretty firm during the entire process. It can be pretty difficult to throw a piece when the base is a different texture than the rim! When I throw these 3-layer pieces, the final result appears a mostly uniform brown color. That's because the surface gets all smeared by friction as I shape the piece:

But if I trim away a thin layer from the surface of each cup, the underlying pattern is revealed:

The effect is kind of like geological strata, or sometimes you get cloud-like formations. A lot depends on how much you work the clay as you are throwing it. Here are some larger cups, made using the same technique:

These pieces have to dry VERY slowly; the different clay bodies dry and shrink at different rates, and this will cause stress and cracking if the cups are dried too fast. This can also occur while firing the cups in the kiln. For that reason, I will fire these very slowly and place them on a shelf away from other pieces. If they crack in the kiln, they sometimes come flying apart and can damage other pieces nearby in the kiln. Here are the pieces as they dry... note some other cups and a bowl on the shelves below:

Here are some shots of the final product, after firing and covering with a clear, glossy glaze - note the drastic color change which occurs upon firing!

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