Terracotta!

For Christmas this year I asked for a lot of clay supplies. I got two cases of glaze, some tools, a pottery wheel (whaaaat?) and two fifty pound boxes of clay. One was stoneware clay—which I’m still trying to get the hang of—and the other was terracotta. I didn’t get a chance to play with the terracotta until yesterday, and my mind has been blown since. I absolutely love it. It has grog in it, which for those of you who don’t know, it’s basically a bunch of tiny grains of bisqueware that helps with stability. This means that this type of clay is perfect for things like coil-building and slab-building, as it holds its shape very well.

Since I first opened the box, I’ve made a wide, shallow pot (looks a bit like a bowl) with some sgraffito designs, a small pinch pot with feet, some swatches for glazing examples, and a larger slab pot. The slab pot was actually the first slab pot I’ve ever made and it went pretty well. I used my handheld dryer to dry out the sides on both the inside and out to prevent any sagging/settling as the pot dried. One thing I learned from that experience was: make sure you have something to mold your clay around for stability.

The third pot took all of today to get it to its ready-for-bisque-fire state, as I decided to carve one of my intuitive landscapes on the sides. I learned during both the sgraffito and the carving of this third pot that terracotta can be a bit tricky when it comes to adding detailed designs, due to the grog, but all that really means is I’m forced to take my time. Which is a definite plus for me, as I tend to rush things.

I hope to give the terracotta a try on the wheel sometime soon, but I’m not getting my hopes up that it will be an easy go, as I haven’t had much luck yet with getting my clay centered.