Pottery Making: How to Make Enclosed Candles and Shakers

Pottery Making: How to Make Enclosed Candles and Shakers - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats.

I am going to show you how to make this. It is an enclosed form. It can be a wonderful little box, or a candle, as a nice gift. Or you can even make these into rattles, by putting bits of clay, rolling it in corn starch and placing it in the piece before it is closed up and you can shake it. I have actually made this into a salt shaker. It is a double walled vessel that has been enclosed. You place the salt in the bottom and, low and behold, salt comes out when you shake it.

We are going to do an enclosed form right now. I have got a back grabber. It is a great device. You put it on your wheel head. It holds about to your wheel head so it does not slip around. You can buy them at any ceramic store, online, or else you can go to your local hardware store and get a shelf liner, cut it up, and do, it does the same thing for a lot less money. Just going to dampen my bat and make sure it is securely on. My clay is a little big so I am going to cut it into half.

So you just open up your clay like you would any other way. Compress your bottom so you do not get an S crack. And then pull your wall up. I leave a little bit extra on the top, and, I am going to start collaring the piece in. When you collar you want to have your hands quite moist. And after about two or three times you are going to want to pull up your neck again, and pull up and in. Then you can, you want to make sure at this point, like I still cannot get all the moisture out from your vessel, and then you can shape, put a little bit of a bevel, a belly to your bowl, actually this is going to be an enclosed form. And then collar, pull, collar, pull, we will collar again, a little pull once more. I think I can do it, then I am going to collar and close.

So once it is closed you have got air in there so you can really have fun kind of pushing in and out, making your piece round, or not. And then we want a little knob up here. So I, if I have enough, if I have left enough clay on the top, I can usually make a little knob. If not I wait until it gets a little bit drier and I add a piece of clay and I make my handle that way. But I think I have got enough clay right now to make a handle or a knob. I should not say handle. Push it up a little bit. Nice and sweet. And if I want later, I can always add on to it. I like that look. I like a little bit of a twist to it, so I will do that. And then you can always take those pieces off later. I think I will give it a little spin here. And then, while it is still going, I will take my wooden tool and trim the bottom.

I am not a very precise thrower. So it looks okay now, but you know you can do so much with a piece after it tends to dry up. So I like that little spin because it adds to the spin of the piece itself. You have your enclosed piece. It is completely hollow. Once it gets a little drier I am going to trace, as it turns on the wheel, a line with my pen tool and then cut it with an exacto knife, and you will be able to lift up. And after I cut it and have the lid off I will let it dry for, you know, until it is completely dry and I will put it in the kiln for its first fire. And then it will be glazed, and fired again. So, I am finished here. I have opened it up. You can see, it is nicely done. It is almost dry. I will wait a few more days for it to completely dry, glaze it, and then it will be a functional box.

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