Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: summer camp

Another week at camp – another group of kids!
This week it’s Clay & MultiMedia; which means a clay project on Monday.
And then other clay projects throughout the week. So we started the week today
with leaf impression plates! We went for a nature walk and “borrowed” a few leaves
along the way. They then made slabs, pressed in their leaves, painted a layer of
underglaze and then carefully pulled out the leaves – leaving the texture & outline
of the pressed leaves in their slabs.

Once the underglaze “dried” enough not to be “smudgey,” they then turned them
into plates by creating a coil frame to use as a slump mold. Tomorrow they will paint
them with clear glaze. And then by the end of the week… they’ll get their finished plates!
And here are my demo plates… also waiting for some clear glaze & kiln time!


5 Comments

Ruth

May 16th, 2013

I also work at a camp teaching ceramics. What kind of clay do you use that you don’t need to put in the kiln before glazing then again after glazing. Love your leaf project. Ruth

May 22nd, 2013

RUTH – We typically use a basic terra cotta. It’s pretty forgiving for kids projects… and a few of my own too. We have them make the pieces with fresh, wet clay. Once they’re built we try to get them in front of a fan to dry the surface as quickly as possible. Pretty soon they can start painting them with underglazes. Sometimes we even have them put on a layer of clear glaze right then too. And then their pieces “might” sit out about24 hours before they get put into a kiln. Many of them are not quite dry, but we fire them slowly to avoid any “explosion” issues. Check with your local clay supplier to see what types of terra cotta they carry. And ask them for any tips they may have about doing some single-fire projects with your kids. The turn-around time is great. They can make their pieces on Monday, and get them all done & fired back on Friday. Bookends to a great week of Summer Camp. Good luck.

Amy

December 10th, 2013

What brand and type of clear glaze do you use?

December 11th, 2013

AMY – It’s Duncan brand “Pure Brilliance”… it’s a funky shade of dark seafoam green in the bottle. And yet it fires very nicely, evenly and clear!!!

April 25th, 2016

I believe in saving time and energy so i try to make pieces that can be fired only once.

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