Pottery making is an age-old craft that has been practiced since time immemorial. It is
a creative way to come up with unique and intricate pieces of art using clay.
Many people have taken up pottery as a hobby because it is an enjoyable
activity which allows you to play with the soft, sticky clay as you channel
your inner creativity to make different styles of artwork using your hands.
Creating pottery involves a chronological procedure that is used to come up with pots,
vases, mugs, and other vessels made from clay. The process begins by mixing
clay soil with water into a smooth, fine and wet mound of clay that can be
shaped into any desirable figure.
Throwing in the Tunnel
The fine mound of clay is then shaped using a wheel. A pottery wheel is a tool that rotates
around at different speeds. The mound of clay is attached to the wheel head and
gets shaped by way of hands or tools while spinning. Once the vessel shape is
achieved, the clay is cut off to dry. However, Detailing and Embellishments may
be done once the form is created. This involves creating patterns and other
things that change the initial form.
Firing Pottery
When the pot has come from the wheel, it needs to dry so that it becomes leather-hard. At
this stage, the pot is called greenware. It is usually quie fragile and needs
care when handling it. To get it to dry, the pot is placed in a kiln for a
first round of firing referred to as bisque firing (Source: https://ceramicartsandcrafts.com/category/ceramic-bisque.html ). This turns the vessel into a ceramic material. After this, the pot is hard enough to avoid disintegrating
during glazing but sufficiently porous to accept the glaze.
Glazing Pottery
This part is where you decorate and color the piece of art by glazing. Glazing is a complex process
that uses glazes which consist of fluxes, silica and aluminum oxide. Using
glazes necessitates a lot of practice and experimentation. Factors like the
kind of clay and kiln used influence the final result. The glazes may be
applied by a brush or by dipping the entire piece inside glaze bath. They
require multiple coats and patience to get them right.
Mayco’s Stroke & Coat
This a top-performance type of glaze that can tolerate the widest range of firing temperatures and ways of application. It can be applied to bisque or clay and can be fired from low
heat temperatures to high fire in reduction and oxidtion atmospheres. Mayco
Stroke and Coat glazes contain enough versatility to fire opaque using three
coats or translucent using a single coat; yet when applied carefully it can be utilized
for detailed brushstrokes. https://ceramicartsandcrafts.com/category/mayco-stroke-and-coat.html
