TeachinArt.com
  • Home
  • Online workshops
    • Understanding Porcelain
    • Handbuilding classes >
      • Porcelain handbuilding
      • Colored clay
      • Handbuilding Pottery For Beginners
    • Wheel thrown classes >
      • Porcelain Tips for Wheel Pottery
      • Take throwing to the next level
    • Teapot classes >
      • Pinching Teapots for Beginners
      • Faceted Teapot set
      • Wheel thrown teapots
    • Dinnerware classes >
      • Wheel thrown porcelain dinnerware
      • Handbuilding porcelain dinnerware
    • Glazing & Firing >
      • Shino glazing
      • Glazing made easy
      • Alternative firing
      • Glazing with Ron Roy
    • Painting on clay >
      • China painting
      • Post-fired finishes
    • All Artists Making A Living (AAMAL) >
      • Success stories
    • Woodworking classes >
      • Introduction to segmenting
    • Preview E-courses
  • Instructors
    • Antoinette Badenhorst
    • David Voorhees
    • Marcia Selsor
    • Connie Christensen
    • Nan Rothwell
    • Lynn Barnwell
    • Marie EvB Gibbons
    • Paul Lewing
    • Curtis Benzle
    • Robert Rundquist
    • Ron Roy
  • Registered students
  • Contact us
    • About us
  • Tips / demos
  • Students work
  • Blog

Wedging clay using the bull's head or Ram's head technique

1/22/2020

0 Comments

 
Antoinette Badenhorst explains how to do the bulls head wedging technique in her online workshop Understanding Porcelain. This is a video clip from her six weeks online class. It all starts with preparing the clay before your start with any wheel throwing or handbuilding projects.
​
Wedging clay is a hot topic to discuss among potters. Some believe that spiral wedging is the best way for preparing the clay, while others will not even think about moving away from the bull's head or ram's head wedging technique. Some ceramic artists even differ about the spelling of the wedging technique - is it bullshead, or maybe bull's head or even just bulls head - and the same argument is used for the ramshead method. Then we also have other techniques like slam wedging and there may be more, but we will discuss that later.
Most potters agree that proper wedging of clay is a very important part of any clay work. This is how you get rid of air bubbles in the clay, but it is also a way how to recycle old clay. Kneading is another term that is used often. Pushing clay through a de-airing pugmil is also considered as a way of wedging in modern times.
Picture
Some ceramic scholars learn that a chunk or block of clay is cut into two pieces with the shape of a wedge. The top one is lifted from the lower one, turned over and slammed onto the wedge that remained on the wedging table. This process is repeated until there are no more air pockets in the clay. The wedging process helps to get the clay uniform in plasticity, texture and color. Roughly 20 wedging's or kneading is enough to prepare the clay. 
Picture
As long as you remove all the air pockets or anything that may mess up your wheel throwing or handbuilding process, then you should be safe to proceed.

In the picture on the left, coloring was used to show the movement of the particles during wedging. It may be an interesting and stimulating test for you to see what happens after 10, 20, 30 times and more of wedging your clay.

Other links:
How to do spiral wedging (David Voorhees)
How to center clay on the pottery wheel (Antoinette Badenhorst)
Demonstrations, tips & techniques
E-course (online workshops)
Tags:
​#claywedging #wedgingclay #wedgeclay #potterytips #teachinart 
0 Comments

Trimming tips for porcelain by Antoinette Badenhorst

1/6/2020

0 Comments

 
When is the right time to use blunt tools and when should you use sharp trimming tools? How dry should the pot be before you can start with the trimming? When is the best time in the drying stage to start with the trimming process? Is there a right and wrong way for trimming on the wheel? Which is the best trimming tool? How to trim a foot rim? How to trim porcelain?

​All of these are valid questions by potters and these problems are all addressed in the online workshops at TeachinArt, the online art school where potters can see close-up demonstrations of each process and can learn the best techniques in the comfort of their own place and own time. 

Links:
​E-courses (online workshops)
Demonstrations, tips & techniques
Preview E-courses
Our Art Instructors
Tags: 
​#trimmingclay #wheeltrimming #trimmingtools #trimmingclay #teachinart #trimmingtips #potterytools
0 Comments

    Author

    TeachinArt is an online art school with professional artists as instructors who educate, enridge and promote art.

    Archives

    March 2022
    December 2021
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019

    Categories

    All
    Alternative Firing
    Artists
    Bone China
    Carving Clay
    Centering Clay
    Clay Sculpting
    Colored Clay
    Decorating
    Demonstrations
    Glazing
    Handbuilding
    Mixed Media
    Painting On Clay
    Paper Clay
    Pinching Clay
    Porcelain
    Pottery Glazing
    Pottery Tips
    Raku
    Slip Casting
    Soluble Salts
    South African Artist
    TeachinArt Students
    Teapots
    Trimming
    Weaving
    Wedging
    Wheel Throwing
    Woodworking Tips

    RSS Feed

Links to other pages

Home
Online workshops
Our Instructors
Registered Students
About Us
Contact Us
Tips & Demos
Behind the scenes
Student's work
FAQ
Reviews

Workshops by categories

Wheel thrown classes
Handbuilding classes
Teapot classes
Porcelain dinnerware classes
Glazing & decorating classes
Woodworking
©2020 TeachinArt
All rights reserved

Webmaster: Koos Badenhorst

  • Home
  • Online workshops
    • Understanding Porcelain
    • Handbuilding classes >
      • Porcelain handbuilding
      • Colored clay
      • Handbuilding Pottery For Beginners
    • Wheel thrown classes >
      • Porcelain Tips for Wheel Pottery
      • Take throwing to the next level
    • Teapot classes >
      • Pinching Teapots for Beginners
      • Faceted Teapot set
      • Wheel thrown teapots
    • Dinnerware classes >
      • Wheel thrown porcelain dinnerware
      • Handbuilding porcelain dinnerware
    • Glazing & Firing >
      • Shino glazing
      • Glazing made easy
      • Alternative firing
      • Glazing with Ron Roy
    • Painting on clay >
      • China painting
      • Post-fired finishes
    • All Artists Making A Living (AAMAL) >
      • Success stories
    • Woodworking classes >
      • Introduction to segmenting
    • Preview E-courses
  • Instructors
    • Antoinette Badenhorst
    • David Voorhees
    • Marcia Selsor
    • Connie Christensen
    • Nan Rothwell
    • Lynn Barnwell
    • Marie EvB Gibbons
    • Paul Lewing
    • Curtis Benzle
    • Robert Rundquist
    • Ron Roy
  • Registered students
  • Contact us
    • About us
  • Tips / demos
  • Students work
  • Blog