‘Clay is constantly changing, drying, and shrinking … you need to work with it.’ Created by Father Theophan
By Father Theophan
Saint Job of Pochaiv Orthodox Church
Los Alamos
“Clay is constantly changing, drying, shrinking” my pottery professor would say, “you need to work with it.”
In upstate New York where I first went to school, getting our pots to dry was a challenge. The relative humidity was high, and most pots didn’t really ever dry completely until we put them in a warm kiln for a few hours.
Here in Los Alamos, or before, even worse, when I made pots in Las Cruces, clay dries at an alarming rate. And in a few days it is ready to fire.
As high humidity had its challenges, so does low. A pot, a bowl, mug, or plate, is thrown right-side-up. Centering, opening, and pulling up the walls. But the bottom needs to be finished, cleaned up, in many cases, so that it is smooth and will glide easily over a table-top once it is fired.
Freshly thrown, a pot is wet and floppy and can’t hold its own weight turned upside-down. Time is needed to let the clay firm up for trimming. Once the pot reaches the “leather hard” stage, it is stiff, but hasn’t started changing color.
It can support its own weight without deformation, but it can still be cut with a sharp tool. A pot at this stage will feel cool the touch since it still holds quite a bit of water.
In our dry conditions though, some pots can be at this stage in a matter of hours. If they are not properly covered, the next morning they can be too far gone, too dry. Trimming at that stage chips off the clay instead of slicing it, and the results can be rough, and the pot can be cracked or chipped.
A lost trimming opportunity is sad. A well thrown pot is lost without finishing.
Some potters have come up with a way to recoup this type of loss and use it to their advantage. It’s a type of trimming called “chattering” in which the too dry pot is trimmed and the resulting chipping and vibration results in an interesting texture and repeating pattern on the pot. Glazes interact in interesting and unexpected ways with the chattered surface.
But if that is not the intent or doesn’t work with the form, there’s not much to be done.
However, before a pot is fired the first time it can be recycled, slaked down in water and returned to usable clay. A five-gallon bucket of this “slurry” can render almost fifty pounds of previous potential pots.
So really, nothing is too far gone. Sometimes a creative new idea saves our old idea from the scrap pile; a new way of looking at a problem offers up an innovative solution. But if there is no saving it, the energy is not necessarily wasted.
Each pot we make, each attempt at solving a problem or creating a work., is nothing if not practice. It hones skills that we can build upon. We can become better. True, we may have nothing tangible to show for it, but we are one attempt closer to proficient, one step closer to success.
The key is not to despair.
No good faith effort is ever completely lost, no energy completely wasted. Smash it, slake it down, go back to the beginning and try again.
