Top 5 Mistakes NOT to make in ceramics

I have recently gotten bitten by the ceramics bug, and I want to share with you the 5 mistakes I made as a beginner (that I hope to never make again).  I’ve learned that making ceramics is like working for a very picky queen.  The clay is totally in charge of what it will and will not do, and you can only coax it along to do your will.

Mistake One:  Don’t Drop It!  I was holding a cup that I was pinching, and I was sitting slouched in a chair with the piece facing downward — and I dropped it on the floor.  It was, of course, crushed, and so was I.  No amount of coaxing could bring that clay back into the shape of a rounded-bottom cylinder — I had to wedge it out and start over.  My advice — don’t try to “fix” it.  It will show up later as the clay dries and is fired.  Just start over.  Also, be careful walking around the studio!  I’ve dropped more than 1 piece not holing on to it — only holding the bat.

Mistake Two:  Don’t pick up the clay by a handle or by a lid before it’s leather hard, or after it’s bone dry.  If you pick up a bone dry mug by the handle, or even after bisque fired, you run the risk of breaking the handle off.  Yes, I did that.  I also picked a lid up off a covered jar before it was leather hard.  In fact, I had no business setting it on the jar before it was leather hard.  I could have trimmed to size afterwards.  I bent the lid, and had to remake it.  Extra tip:  If you need to make a lid for a piece that’s already been fired, or even one that hasn’t been — use the lidmaster!  This little tool is SO handy for measuring how large to make the lid — it even accounts for shrinkage.  Buy it at Amazon or Blick Art Materials.

Mistake 3:  This is really a life lesson.  Don’t do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.  I don’t mean don’t practice — by all means you must do that!  In this case, I mean trying to do something over and over that just doesn’t work.  For example, I wanted to make a sculpture out of clay that had aspects of both going upward, and swirling.  Here are my attempts in various conditions — I photographed MOST of them before they broke completely, but all versions had breakage.  The sculpture professor wants me to take his class and execute it in sheet metal, and I think that’s the plan.

Version 1:  Too thick on the arms — couldn’t get it to stay together. 

The arms kept falling off!

version 2:  stayed together at home; arms broke off in transit

version 3 — cracked on three arms in firing.  repaired and painted.

Mistake 4: Don’t work clay in the wrong stage. Know the stages of your clay.  For example, the sculpture below needed to be hollowed out, and I did it while it was still plastic.  I crushed parts of it, and other parts failed to line up properly.  You need to wait til the clay is leather hard to manipulate it; to refine it.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you need an overview on the stages of clay.  Speaking of this sculpture, also see mistake #1!  I dropped version 1 of it.  This is version 3.  I didn’t like version 2, so I cut it up and put it in recycling.

Mistake 5:  Don’t be afraid to reject your work and start over.  At each stage, the clay is less recyclable.  If you don’t like it after you make it, why fire it?  You can recycle the clay.  You can’t do that once it’s bisque fired, or glazed and fired.  At some point you have to finish your work.  Don’t be a perfectionist out the door!  My friend Jaye is fond of saying her lovely work is “caca”.  Don’t be that way toward yourself.  Honestly, though, if you don’t like it bone dry, you aren’t going to improve it by firing it, or glazing it.

Finally (I know, I said 5), the obvious admonition I can give you is this: Learn from your mistakes.  Pottery is a hard master, and it’s hard to master.  Remember it’s got a lot of science in it, but its ART.  Be gentle with yourself.  Really, would you tell your best friend her work was “caca”?  No, you would not.  Show yourself some grace.  Pottery making is difficult.  Welcome to working for the queen.

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