Jo brought a gritty clay to use (Ashraf Hanna Raku clay) to demonstrate making a hand built coil pot. Jo began by throwing the clay across her board, instead of rolling, it, in order to get it to the right thickness. Then she placed the clay on her turntable smoothing it out with one of her kidney shaped smoothing tools. Jo then sets the turntable spinning and cuts a smallish circle for the base of the pot.

She makes the first coil by rolling a large piece of the clay and throws that across her board to make it longer. She then flattens the coil with the side of her hand to make it deeper and applies this to the side edge of her base overlapping the edges without stretching it and then cutting a diagonal through the two overlapping clay pieces with a knife. Then she joined the two ends together, all the while smoothing the clay to attach it to the base by pulling the clay up the way and then down the way on the inside. Jo then adds a thin coil to attach base and wall on the inside of the pot and blends it into the join for strength. Joe likes to be tidy whilst making a coil pot as she goes along, thinning the walls and bring them out a little bit. She keeps pulling the clay up a bit so that it’s not too chunky enjoying the moment and the feel of the clay between her fingers and thumb. Jo thinks it is quite useful when making a hand built pot to place a mirror behind the pot so she can check the shape from behind as well as in front so as not to end up with a lopsided finished shape. Jo made another large coil piece, throwing it across the board to make it longer and again punched it flat with the side of her hand. She added this coil on the top but attaches it to the outside as she wants the walls to come out more. Cutting it diagonally again she joins the pieces together. And again pulling the clay up the way on the outside and pushing the clay down over the join on the inside. Jo pinches the join together with her fingers and thumbs and then brings up the wall higher . It’s all about the touch to feel how thin the clay is. Using a kidney tool or an African smoothing tool to shape the inside and smooth out the shape to get the lumpy finger marks off. It helps to strengthen the joins between the coils and to shape the pot. Jo does this on both the outside then the inside of the pot.

Pottery Mud tools are quite flexible in the making and smoothing of a hand build coil pot and Jo recommends them along with the pottery Kidney shaped smoothing tools which come in a variety of flexible plastics and edges. Jo makes another coil but this time shaves off along the rim and on the edge of the new coil and lays the corresponding overlap to the inside of the pot and smooths the joins in the same way as before. Using fingers on the outside and thumb on the inside to push the clay downwards and spending a while smoothing with a rough edged tool

Breaking for refreshments everyone gathers around the half finished hand built coil pot to get a good look and feel of the clay noting the thickness and stability so far.

The Second half of Jo’s Demo is to use a leather hard pot she has thrown and covered in coloured slip in order to show how she does the sgraffito technique. Before Jo dips her pots in slip she covers the rim and base of the pot in wax as a resist in order to keep a clean edge without any drips . She likes a Matt finish so doesn’t glaze her pots. Jo uses soft pencils to either freehand draw her organic design onto the dry Matt finish slip or transfer a pattern onto the pot first. During firing both the wax and the soft pencil lines of the design are burnt off in the kiln. She draws her designs which are dandelions and used a metal circle to press shapes onto her pot. Scratching into the designs using her tools (ball headed tools and spearheaded tools plus ones that she makes herself) Jo uses a soft brush to brush away the excess bits of clay.

Jo shows the pot she has been working around the room and invites questions about her process to everyone’s delight.

Sometimes Jo uses templates and an extra coloured slip. After the design is added then it goes in the kiln and is fired to a bisque hard finish and when that’s done, she glazes the inside of the pot after waxing a bit further down from the rim to prevent any dripping and after that a final firing.

Tips - Jo also transfers decorations using tracing paper to transfer her pencil marks onto her pots.
The dust that comes off during the sgraffito process should be discarded into a bin.
Timings are very important in pottery making.
Holding the piece during decorating does not affect the dry Matt slip surface. But it’s better to be as quick as possible before the pot dries out.

Jo studied jewellery at Edinburgh College of Art but a few years ago fell in love with the feel of clay and so is largely self taught in pottery. She likes line drawing and now prefers her latest geometric designs which are influenced by her interest in mid century architecture.