Marian Williams, Author at Marian Williams Pottery

5.3

A Sculpture Trick For You!

Do you ever get to the end of a sculpture, bisque it and knock off a tip, wing, piece?

Well, it happens to all of us! and we’ve all had to “repair” that piece. Recently, I had a sculpture with a major blow up and the fix-it stick helped to put her back together again.

Here’s the “trick” that I’ve found that works.

I order this stuff on Amazon and usually get a few tubes of it at a time to ensure I have it on hand.

I pull off a small portion of the fix it stick, and as you can see, it has layers. By mixing the stick, it activates the adhesive part of the “stuff” and then I use it to fill any crack crevice, or attach anything that needs attaching,

Place it on both sides of the piece to be reattached or squish deeply into the crack to ensure the epoxy will work. Leave it for 24 hours, then it should be hard as a rock.

raku, figurative sculpture, repairs, cracks, epoxy filler — After the bisque firing, her breast blew off!

Of course, we all hope to never have to make repairs, but if you do, this stuff can be your good friend!

Happy potting and keep it real!

Marian

recycled clay, reclaimed clay, handbuilt vase

How To Make A Slab From Recycled Clay

If you’re like me, recycling/reclaiming clay is always a hassle. However, I like to reuse all that clay that, if reclaimed, can save a lot of money and its also really great for the environment.

reclaimed clay, recycled clay, — Trimmings from thrown pots

I generally save all bits and pieces of clay, slip, and throwing slop. I place it in a big rubber storage container out behind my pottery studio. I let it sit there until I’m ready for some heavy work, then scoop up the clay and put it in doubled bags that I have saved from purchased clay. It’s a mix of low fire white, white raku, and a brown cone 6 clay that I generally throw with. When it’s placed in the bags, it’s a big mix of those clays. It’s great for hand building, but not good for anything functional, as it is super groggy from the raku clay.

recycled clay, reclaimed clay, hand building — All of these pieces were made from reclaimed/recycled clay.

Sometimes I leave it in the bags too long and it becomes a big lump of very hard, rock-like clay. When it is like this, I wrap it in a sopping wet towel and put it in water-tight bags and wait a few days. After a few days, the clay reabsorbs the moisture and is ready to use.

Instead of wedging this clay, (lazy me) I simply use it as is. The following video shows how I slab roll this clay.

The video also shows how I use a LP record, cut in half, to make a wonderful tool for smoothing and compressing the clay.

Hopefully, this is helpful to you and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Happy potting to you!

How To Make Pottery Stilts For Firing Low-Fire Glazed Pieces and Raku Pots.

Creation Firing How To's

If you are like me, you never have enough stilts for low-fire pieces or Raku firings. These stilts are essential for any piece that has glaze all around and you don’t want it touching the kiln shelf and sticking. Unfortunately, they can be pretty pricey and are easily broken.

Especially when I raku, I often need stilts to prop up small items – Christmas decorations, jewelry, etc.

I decided to make my own stilts and found it amazingly easy and also very useful as you can make any shape and size to fit your needs.

I’ve had to fire totem pieces that are totally glazed, but they are long shapes, so making my own stilts has been excellent.

Here’s how to do it:

Order these little stilt pins from Amazon or your local pottery store. (I’m in the middle of nowhere, so Amazon is easier!).

stilts, homemade stitls, How to make stilts — These can be ordered from Amazon.

Roll out a slab, using a clay that is groggy and can withstand heat and abuse- (I use Raku clay), Cut out little shapes of clay that you think you will need. Punch the stilt wires into the clay, trying to get them evenly spaced and also the same depth so that a piece can easily sit atop the stilt.

homemade stilts, firing stilts — Cut a slab of clay into the various shapes that you think will be useful in your firings.

Once they are dry, bisque fire them and they are good to go!

Good luck and have fun with this little project to make your life as a potter easier!

Happy Potting!

Marian

Clay Friends/ Clay Play Day

Creation

I’ve been back from Australia for 5 years now and have tried many ways to meet new clay friends/people -especially those that are within driving distance! It’s been hard and I had not found these clay people until recently!

Clay Friends are really important! Not just for the camaraderie, but also for the sharing of information, skills, passion and wine! It’s been so great!

I met Jacki while sitting on my boat dock when she kayaked by – she saw my totems and inquired and a year later, she started Clay Play in her barn just a mile down the road from me! Incredible! Then I met Nancy at the Highland Arts Guild! Then I met Sharon at the Sculpture Fest! We all have very diverse interest and backgrounds in clay, but it doesn’t matter. Clay is the tie that binds!

The group meets officially once a month at Jacki’s barn (we are so fortunate to have her share her space with us!) and randomly at other times when someone needs a hand, information or sharing of supplies or work, etc.

Our group keeps growing! It seems everyone wants to do clay, so sometimes we have 12+ people!

After 5 years of searching for my people, I’ve found them!!!

Here’s to Clay People!

Marian

Barrel firing made easier!

Creation

In the past I’ve always done my saggar/barrel fires in a big fifty gallon drum. It’s heavy, hard to manage and requires lots of wood to do the firing. In addition, it’s not worth doing unless you’ve got 20-30 pots to fire.

Finding this new solution to saggar/barrel firing has made the process quicker, easier, requires less wood and you can fire a small load.

The solution is a compost barrel with legs for air flow, plenty of holes to allow for oxygen and a good lid.

This is a product from Behren’s. I found mine at a local farm supply. store.

Each piece was wrapped in aluminum foil with some sawdust, copper carb, cobalt oxide, and a few other combustibles. My friend, Sharon Schull, joined in on this firing and our saggars combined gave us 14 small to medium size packets. They all fit in the saggar great!

We started the fire in the bin about 3 in the afternoon and unloaded it about 9pm. So the process from start to finish took about 10 hours.

Here are a couple of my little pod vessels that came out of this firing:

Happy potting and thanks for reading!!

Marian

How To Make Sculptural Fish

Alternative Firing Handbuilding Raku

I start with a newspaper form- squished and folded into the shape of a fish. I use masking tape or blue painters tape to hold it all together.

I then roll out a slab of clay- probably around 5/8 “ thick. Cut a big edge around the fish form that you’ve made so as to have plenty of clay to cover the form.
simply wrap the clay around the form – smoothing and pinching til all the form is covered. It should be starting to look like a fish!

now is the fun part- allow yourself to go a bit crazy- these fish are not anatomically correct so don’t worry about where fins should be or what they should look like. Add eyes, fins, a mouth, texture- anything you want!

be sure to think ahead about how you plan to display the fish. I leave a fairly big hiking the under mid section., as I mount mine on a piece of metal about the size of rybar. In fact, I sculpt with The piece placed on a rebar stand.

For Sculpture Fest in Marble Falls, I displayed my latest figurative sculpture, Lake Girl – which you can view in this previous post. In addition to Lake Girl, I created handbuilt Raku’d Fish. Each fish was unique but all sported big red lips and were mounted on a display. Many of the fish had additional of metal pieces sourced from old pieces of iron scraps.

Dog Sculptures!!

Alternative Firing Creation Handbuilding Raku Sculpture

I started doing dog sculptures a couple of years ago in order to donate one to the local fund raising effort of the Animal Shelter.

This now has continued and I make lots of dog sculptures! This time I Raku’d them and they turned out great! So I wanted to show them to you!

My sculptures are not anatomically correct and I like to give them a bit of “funny” and personality.

lake girl, figurative sculpture, Raku'd sculpture, raku, ceramic sculpture, clay, marianwilliamspottery.com

Lake Girl Sculpture

Creation Figurative Sculpture Raku Sculpture

My work for this years Sculpture Fest in Marble Falls, Texas was centered around my main figurative sculpture, Lake Girl. I sculpted her with the intention that she appeared to have just come up out of the water. Dragonflies surround her – as that is what happens here when you’re swimming! Lake Girl was Raku’d in a fiber homemade kiln and the reduction bin was placed over her as she would be to heavy to lift.

Marian Williams Pottery, Ceramics Monthly, how to select a spray gun

I’m Published In Ceramics Monthly!

How-To Studio and Equipment

Ceramics Monthly is the best publication on Ceramics in the USA. It’s been the go to resource for all things ceramics for many years.

I feel honored and excited to be asked to write articles for the Tips & Topics Section of the Ceramics Monthly magazine.

In the September issue, my article is “Wheel Table”.

Marian Williams Pottery, Ceramics Monthly, Wheel Table

To read the whole article, click HERE.

The second article was on “How To Select A Spray Gun”. To read the article, click HERE.

What a thrill! I’ve always wanted to be in Ceramics Monthly!

Happy Potting to you all!

Marian

GARY HUNTOON: THE PASSING OF A LEGEND

Creation

I just learned today that Gary Huntoon has passed away. It is such a shock! No one of that calibre should ever leave the earth….but he has.

I shall always remember Gary for his great humor, his skills as a potter, but foremost, his love of people and his ability to bring out the best in all of those around him.

I’ll miss him greatly, but he gave us a legacy as potters – to hold each other up, to keep in contact with each other, and to encourage each other in the pursuit of our art.

Here is the link to another post I wrote about Gary and his work. Click here

Valle sweet Gary!

With Love,

Marian

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