I recently attended a workshop taught by Helen Charles on handbuilding large vessels.  The workshop was offered by the Gold Coast Potters Association with Lynette Rogers as the convenor.  Short version:   IT WAS AWESOME!!!!

I never actually WANTED to hand build GIANT POTS!  I am a thrower!

But when I saw the offering, I signed up!  I really didn’t think much about what I wanted to make and there in lies the problem!  I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to make!

My Drawing of the Pot I Hoped to Make and the Measurements.
My Drawing of the Pot I Hoped to Make and the Measurements.

So I quickly made a drawing on the back of the workshop handout!

Once we had decided on what we wanted to make, we then had to MEASURE the drawing!  Cripes! Maths!  Hate math!  But…I did it! By multiplying each measurement by an increment (I did 3), the final pot will be, say 3 times, as large as the drawing.  Works like a champ!

Helen Charles Demonstrating The Process Of Drawing Your Pot and Measuring It. Her Pots Are On the Right Side of the Photo.
Helen Charles Demonstrating The Process Of Drawing Your Pot and Measuring It. Her Pots Are On the Right Side of the Photo.

And…that is ONE of the secrets to successful large pot building!  We had to measure each step of the way and then correct if we were off course.

BRT Clay Worked Great!
BRT Clay Worked Great!

The other secret was to use BRT-a groggy raku clay that didn’t need slipping or scoring!

The final secret is to dry the pot as you are building it with a gas burner.  This permits you to work more quickly and the pot can sustain the weight of each addition of clay.

Helen Charles Demonstrating Drying Your Pot with a Gas Burner.
Helen Charles Demonstrating Drying Your Pot with a Gas Burner.
Helen Charles Demonstrating Drying Your Pot with a Gas Burner.
Helen Charles Demonstrating Drying Your Pot with a Gas Burner.

The pot is built by rolling out coils, then flattening them with a rolling pin.  These are then attached to the pot.

Helen Charles Making Coils.
Helen Charles Making Coils.
Helen Charles Demonstrating Rolling Out Coils to Make Slab Coils.
Helen Charles Demonstrating Rolling Out Coils to Make Slab Coils.

Blog Tip:  On any of these small pics, just click on them and it takes you to a larger pic and then it will run a slide show of the pics in that group.

Here is my pot and the progression of building it:

My Pot: 1
My Pot: 2
My Pot: 3
My Pot: 4
My Pot: 5-leaning!
Marian Williams With My Pot at Its Critical Juncture!
My Pot: 6 Helen (The MASTER!!) had to come in and straighten up my pot and help me decide on a “new direction” for the final pot!
Helen Charles and Marian Williams with the Final Product!
Marian’s Pot-FINAL!

Ultimately, I had to have the MASTER!!! help me out as it had gotten off course!

Helen is a genius and helped me re-engineer my pot.  She also SAVED!! several other pots!

Here are all the pots at the halfway point:

Kirsten Hague midway on her large jug.
Helen Charles and Paul Button with his vessel.
Claire Byrne’s umbrella stand.
Anne Mossman working on her large vessel.
Ann O’Connor’s pot mid way.
Robyn Roylance working on her large pot.
Midge Johansen working on her big nude pot.
Lynette Rogers working on her big vessel.
From Left: Camilla Murphy, Anne Mossman, and Wendy Hodgsen at the mid-way point.
Sandra Tafe’s Big Jar!
Marian Williams with my almost complete pot.

Here are pots in progress:

Kirsten Hague making coils and working on a handle for her jug.
Robyn Roylance adding coils to her pot.
Claire Byrne making great progress on her umbrella stand.
Camilla (first time potter!) with her lovely large potato chip bowl!
Lynette Rogers getting to the top edge of her pot.
Paul Button started on a SECOND vessel!
Midge Johansen’s sculpture pot now has boobs!
Sandra Tafe’s pot is getting much taller!
Marian Williams pot is almost done!
Kirsten Hague is wondering if the braided rope adds to her pot??

Here are pots being presented and critiqued by Helen and the group:

Paul Button presenting his gorgeous (pot 2) bowl.
Paul Button presenting his lovely altered form.
Ann O’Connor’s amazing jug-great handle!!
Claire Byrne’s umbrella stand turned out wonderfully.
Robyn Roylance’s pot was covered in fantastic flowers and leaves!
Kirsten Hague’s large pitcher/jug turned out great!
Lynette Roger’s large vessel was just gorgeous!
Midge Johansen’s nude vessel was fantastic!
Wendy Hodgson’s large envelope/package vessel was too cool!
Camilla Murphy’s big bowl was just incredible!
Anne Mossman created two (count them!!!) amazing vessels!
Marian Williams’ – yep, there it is!

Helen Charles class is awesome!  I highly recommend it!

One of the most enviable students was a total newbie to clay, Camilla.

Camilla (first time potter!) with her lovely large potato chip bowl!
Camilla (first time potter!) with her lovely large potato chip bowl!

She built the most amazing large bowl!  I told her that she should be very proud of herself as most people’s first pot is an ash tray (at best!).  In fact, that is what I want to make next!  A great big bowl.

So I went to Picasso’s Ceramics and Brad loaded me up some BRT!!!

Pot on, my pretties!