Another important thing to consider is if it is at all worth it to fix the crack. If it will take you longer to fix the piece than it would take you to make a new one, then it will be penny-wise-pound-foolish to fix it. It is also good to learn when a crack is really not worth the effort and when it may make a real difference. Some cracks are more worthy to fix than others.

A piece that is strictly for decoration and will not get confused for a utilitarian piece, is a perfect piece to fix, both artificially and structurally; that is with or without ceramic materials. In fact, a crack that distract from the beauty, should be fixed. However, when the utilitarian strength of a piece, for instance the handle of a teapot, is weakened by the fixing process, it is not worth it to put your reputation as a ceramic artist on the line.

All potters must at least fix one crack in their lifetime, or else they have not had the “full clay experience” - I say that tongue-in-the-cheek. However, there was one potter known,  not only for fixing cracks, but she changed the whole perspective on American porcelain as she was recognized as the most important United States ceramic artist in the 20th century (Arts and Antiques magazine - March 2000).

​Adelaïde Alsop Robineau was born during the last remnants of the industrial revolution in the United States and growing up, she became a painting artist. But as it often went with artists during these times, she worked also as a china painter on ceramics to help support her family.
​
One of very few women in the USA to study and practice pottery at the time, she worked primarily in porcelain, experimenting with American clay to create a true high-fire porcelain.
​It took her over 1,000 hours to make, but as it often happens with porcelain, there were small cracks when it came from the kiln. Taxile Doat, her teacher advised her to trash the piece, as it appeared to be irreparable. She did not give it up and spent hours grinding bisque to powder, mixing it with some powdered glaze, and filled the cracks. After re-glazing and re-firing, the piece was pulled from the kiln with no signs of cracks or reparation.

Here is how I fix cracks: Mix up some paper clay from your clay body. Add a few drops of clear glaze and some finely grounded bisque from the same clay as the mug. Clean any dust away and add some clear glaze on the chip. As it dries, it may open up some cracks again, but keep filling it with more paper clay. Remember paper clay must still shrink to catch up with the rest of the body, so it needs enough filler that will not shrink that much.

​When you put it back in the kiln, put some silica on the shelf under the piece to prevent possible sticking. If it is a foot rim, you may have to sand it when it comes out.

Links:
Porcelain by Antoinette
E-courses (online workshops) at TeachinArt
Preview our e-courses
Demonstrations and tips

Tags:
​#potterytips #faultsandremedies #fixingfaults #teachinart #ceramicschool #paperclay #paperporcelain 

Centering of clay on the wheel is one of the most crucial parts of wheel throwing. This is the time to get the clay particles in the right place and to build on to the wedged clay process. If the clay is not centered correctly, then the pulling-up of the walls becomes a nightmare.

There are some potters who do not know that you can set the wheel to spin clockwise or anti-clockwise. Right handed potters should let the wheel spin anti-clockwise and left-handed throwers should switch the direction of the wheel head to a clockwise motion. 

Throwing on the wheel is easier if you use technique instead of force. It is easier to get your arm locked on your upper leg and let you leg do the pushing and steadying instead of just your arms.

This is a video clip from the Understanding Porcelain e-course by Antoinette Badenhorst. TeachinArt brings ceramic workshops into the studio of potters around the world, and is the bridge between college students and hobby potters. 

Other interesting links on our online school website:

• Online art workshops (e-courses)
• Demonstrations, tips & techniques
• Preview our e-courses

Tags:
#centeringclay #wheelthrowing #potterytips #teachinart #wheelpottery #clayshares #ceramicschool #virtualclass

Nan RothwellNan Rothwell is a professional, functional potter from North Carolina who have 40+ years ceramics experience. She is the online instructor for the take your wheel throwing to the next level e-course at TeachinArt. She shares tips and techniques in her online class with potters and shows them how to move into advanced throwing with ease.

​When you attach a handle to a mug, teapot, jug or any other clay wall, cracking of the handle is one of the big problems. When you add wet clay to a dry pot, the chances are very good for cracking at the handle.

There are several reasons why handles crack loose from a mug, but this tip from Nan Rothwell may help you prevent some of your cracking reasons in the future.

Other links:
​Learn pottery online (E-courses)
​See our other demonstrations, tips & techniques
​Preview e-courses

Tags:
​#pottery tips #claymugs #ceramicschool #clayshares #teachinArt #makingmugs #teachingpottery

David Voorhees is a functional potter from North Carolina with over 40 years experience in ceramics. He is the instructor of the online workshop Porcelain Tips For Wheel Pottery at TeachinArt.

Several potters have problems with opening and pulling up consistent cylinders or bowl forms. Some of the problems are uneven walls with too much thickness at the bottom, uneven rims, and slumping clay.

These are all common problems associated with skill development and learning to use porcelain on the wheel. Porcelain does require a bit more of us as craftsmen. It needs to be prepared better and we need to limit the amount of time it is allowed to be fully wet during forming.

Here are my suggestions for those experiencing these common problems:

• Wedge well, but don’t dry the clay out too much. Keep it covered! (see how to do Spiral wedging, as well as the Bulls head wedging)
• Center the best you can, using enough water to keep the clay uniformly slippery.
• Move directly into opening and compressing the bottom.
• For cylinders, make a pronounced corner on the inside.
• First pull; aim for uniform thickness with slight taper. Don’t worry about an uneven rim as the clay is being further centered with the wall pulling.
• Second pull: raise the clay most of the way, you likely will double the height with this pull. Again, aim for a slight taper in wall thickness. If your rim is uneven, trim it now with a needle tool and round and smooth.
• Continue to raise and shape but use less water as it gets thinner. This stage is where ribs and sponges help. Try wet trimming the “skirt” of clay on the outside base before using ribs.
• Work in a series to build skills: 6 cylinders or bowl of the same size and shape or several bowls with each slightly larger (weigh them out). As you advance you can throw to a pointer stick. A chopstick in a wad of clay works well. When you have a form that you like, set the pointer ¼” off of the rim. Then work toward making the other like the model pot. Later, you can take weights and measurements so that you know how to produce consistent items. I use 420 grams of clay to make mugs thrown to 4 ¼” tall by 3 ¾” wide at the rim.
• Work toward following a step-by-step procedure as you work on a series of pots.  Ask yourself what is working and what is not,  then repeat the successful sequence and eliminate the steps that don’t help you. The more that you can develop your own sequence for forming an item like a mug, the quicker that you will make them. This will lessen the stress on the clay.
• As you master the smaller items like mugs, then you can extend your size range or complexity range. An advanced series may be something like a set of dinner plates, a graduated canister set with lids or a tea set.  Most of the skills that you need will be served by mastering the basic elements that I am covering in my online workshop Porcelain Tips For Wheel Pottery.

Links:
Online workshops at TeachinArt
Art instructors at TeachinArt
Preview the e-courses presented at the art school
Demonstrations & tips by our instructors and other artists and crafter's

Tags:
#potterytips #wheelthrown #wheelthrownporcelain #wheelthrowingtips #ceramicschool #teachinart #wedgingclay #wedging

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

Tags:
#sculptingclay #translucentporcelain #ceramicschool #porcelainsculptures #claysculptures #potterytips #teachinart

Paper clay is many times used by ceramic artists to make the construction of sculptures easier. Antoinette Badenhorst demonstrates how she uses paper clay to create translucent porcelain vessels. Paper clay burns out in the pottery kiln and does not really affects the final outcome of the sculpture. It helps with the forming and sculpturing.

Links:
Understanding porcelain e-course with Antoinette Badenhorst
Porcelain handbuilding e-course with Antoinette Badenhorst
E-courses (online workshops) at TeachinArt
Demonstrations, tips and techniques (Tips shared by teachers of TeachinArt)
Preview e-courses (take a quick peek into our online workshops)
Art Instructors (Meet our online art instructors)

Tags:
​#paperclay #paperporcelain #translucentporcelain #recycleclay

Antoinette Badenhorst and David Voorhees, both professional potters and teachers at TeachinArt show how to make plaster wheel bats for the pottery wheel. This demonstration was presented during the recording of David's e-course Porcelain Tips For Wheel Pottery at the studio of Antoinette in Saltillo Mississippi.

​Mima Boskov is a South African potter who completed the Understanding Porcelain e-course of Antoinette Badenhorst at Teachinart.
She learned in the online workshop how to make a plaster bat for her pottery wheel and then she decided to create her own version of the plaster bat. That is why TeachinArt is a platform for Artists who teach Artists. Mima is a typical example of one of the success stories of online teaching.

Here is Mima's explanation in her own words.

I took up pottery a few years ago, in an attempt to discover my Creative Self, liberate the Inner Child, find the Artist Within - ah, you've heard it all before: mid-life crisis and how to solve it...

I've been wedging, throwing, despairing, buying books, Googling and reading articles with genuine passion ever since. 

I'm still waiting for the Artist, but I've revealed a determined Artisan Within, and sure have hatched an Inner Gyro Gearloose (for the younger among us, that's the whacky inventor from Donald Duck cartoons). The hatchling grew out of my frustration with relatively poor choice of pottery tools in South Africa: no Mudtools, no Griffin Grip, no Strongarm centering tool, no plaster bat mold systems... So many tempting goodies that one can glimpse on internet pages, but can't source locally. Ordering online involves shipping and import duties, and the price becomes extravagant.

There is an Afrikaans saying in my country: "'n Boer maak 'n plan".

It literally means "the farmer makes a plan", but is used when lateral thinking helps one find a novel and ingenious way of surmounting an obstacle.

I realized that being the Boer with 'n plan and making my own pottery tools gives me almost as much pleasure and sense of achievement as making pots.

We needed plaster bats for the Understanding Porcelain course. I had been trying to develop a plaster bat system for my wheel for a while, and a detail from Antoinette's drawing made everything click together. 

Mima Boskov is a South African potter who completed the Understanding Porcelain e-course of Antoinette Badenhorst at Teachinart.
She learned in the online workshop how to make a plaster bat for her pottery wheel and then she decided to create her own version of the plaster bat. That is why TeachinArt is a platform for Artists who teach Artists. Mima is a typical example of one of the success stories of online teaching.

Here is Mima's explanation in her own words.

I took up pottery a few years ago, in an attempt to discover my Creative Self, liberate the Inner Child, find the Artist Within - ah, you've heard it all before: mid-life crisis and how to solve it...

I've been wedging, throwing, despairing, buying books, Googling and reading articles with genuine passion ever since. 

I'm still waiting for the Artist, but I've revealed a determined Artisan Within, and sure have hatched an Inner Gyro Gearloose (for the younger among us, that's the whacky inventor from Donald Duck cartoons). The hatchling grew out of my frustration with relatively poor choice of pottery tools in South Africa: no Mudtools, no Griffin Grip, no Strongarm centering tool, no plaster bat mold systems... So many tempting goodies that one can glimpse on internet pages, but can't source locally. Ordering online involves shipping and import duties, and the price becomes extravagant.

There is an Afrikaans saying in my country: 'n Boer maak 'n plan.

It literally means "the farmer makes a plan", but is used when lateral thinking helps one find a novel and ingenious way of surmounting an obstacle.

I realized that being the Boer with 'n plan and making my own pottery tools gives me almost as much pleasure and sense of achievement as making pots.

We needed plaster bats for the Understanding Porcelain course. I had been trying to develop a plaster bat system for my wheel for a while, and a detail from Antoinette's drawing made everything click together. 

​​In another half hour, plaster can be taken off the plastic bat, using a thin spatula. After removing the dowels, the rubber grommets stay safely embedded in the underside of the bat, so the whole thing can be attached to the wheel head pins, and reused many times without damaging the plaster. A thin rubber mat on the wheel head helps secure the bat

Links:
E-courses at TeachinArt
Art instructors at TeachinArt
Preview e-course
Demonstrations & tips

Tags:
​#potterywheel #wheelthrowing #wheelbats #teachinart #teachingpottery #ceramicschool #teachingpottery

Potters can prevent most of the S-cracks in their work if they follow her advice and tips.

Links:
Understanding porcelain online class with Antoinette Badenhorst
Porcelain handbuilding with Antoinette Badenhorst
E-courses (online workshops) at TeachinArt
Preview e-courses at the online art school
Demonstrations, tips and techniques

Tags:
#potterycracks #fixingcracks# #teachingpottery #teachinart #clayfaults #faultsandremedies #porcelain #onlineschool #ceramicschool #clayshares