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Graham Sheehan introduces beginning potters to low-tech approaches to clay arts that have been used by potters for thousands of years. After digging and preparing local clay, he demonstrates modeling and slab techniques for making simple hand-built forms. He then shows how to build a wood-fired kiln that novices can construct in a couple of hours using re-cycled bricks. Graham fires this kiln and shows the finished forms that complete the clay arts cycle. Drawings and a materials list are provided to aid with the construction of the kiln.
(about 60 minutes)
Graham Sheehan introduces beginning potters to basic hand-building techniques. After showing how to make simple pinch pots, he demonstrates coil and slab building methods using five different projects of increasing complexity. The video features close-ups that provide details about how clay should be prepared, how it can be joined to another piece and how glazes can be used to decorate forms. The program concludes with a demonstration of the finished pieces fired in an electric kiln.
(about 60 minutes)
Gordon Hutchens introduces beginning potters to basic raku techniques. He discusses desirable properties of clays used in raku firings and then shows how to prepare the clay. He makes several pots which are bisque-fired, then decorated using techniques that take advantage of the unique characteristics of raku. After preparing his pots Gordon shows how to make a simple kiln from a 55 gallon drum. Finally, he fires the forms he has made; then he demonstrates how to manage a raku firing and how to perform the post-firing reduction that provides the distinctive raku effects. Glaze recipes as well as a drawing and a materials list for the kiln are included.
(about 60 minutes)
Graham shows potters how to complete their pots once they have reached the leather-hard stage. The program demonstrates the use of electric kilns for successful bisque and glaze firings. Topics include kiln selection and operation; slip decoration; bisque loading and firing; use of cones; waxing; glaze mixing; glaze application; brush decoration; glaze loading and firing. Includes printed notes and recipes.
(about 60 minutes)
Learn the throwing techniques that Robin Hopper has developed during his award-winning forty-year career. This comprehensive introduction to throwing on the potter's wheel features wedging, centering, the throwing of basic forms, and trimming. The video uses multiple camera angles and close-ups to demonstrate what the hands and fingers do at various stages, both inside and outside a thrown object. Robin works with the basic cylindrical form, and presents throwing exercises that lead to mastery of the throwing process for a variety of sizes and shapes of cylinders, including waisted, conical and spherical variations. He concludes by demonstrating the throwing of bowls and plates.
(about 60 minutes)
This video was added to our catalog on March 01, 2005 in Arts & Crafts::Pottery.
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Robin Hoppers Videos were extremely useful for the beginner (like myself). I could easily follow along and do the techniques described and his natual teaching manner was a pleasure to watch.
I'm going to check out the rest of the series!
Outstanding. Sheehan actually shows you how to dig up clay on a river or lake bed and process it all the way through firing in your own hand made kiln. He's made a believer of me - I can do it myself!
I am new to pottery and I found the video very helpful. Each instructor has some unique ways of solving problems and I found several excellent hints from this video. I would recommend it to any person who is interested in perfecting their throwing techniques.
I’ve flown around the world in a plane, I’ve settled revolutions in Spain, The north pole I have charted, But can’t get started with clay. This situation is about to be remedied with a leisurely viewing, glass of port in hand, of Graham Sheehan’s “Getting Started with Clay.” Having done a google search on the fellow, and become reasonably certain the DVD is not an instructional video on the best means to chat up a certain American Idol winner if you find yourself next to him at an airport bar, I begin.
Mr. Sheehan is kneading some clay, which is what you’d watch if the Paint Drying video seemed a bit tame. He frames the lessons to come with a promise: “Throughout we’d like to stress simple processes that are accessible to anybody.” Good.
“Right now I’m using a commercial clay body that would be available at your local clay supplier,” he says. Good. “But of course we should be able to dig it from the ground.” Yes, if I live on top of a clay mine, but I don’t, and besides: what’s the matter with store-bought clay? I’m just getting started here, remember. This is like renting “Getting Started with Breadmaking” and discovering that the first lesson involves the creation of a pest-resistant hybrid strain.
“So let’s get started with that,” he says, referring to home-dug clay. Sure enough: we’re off to the “Clay Preparation” segment, which shows someone scooping up earth-mucus and pouring it into a filthy bucket. A toothsome lass scoops it up while our host squats in front of a slough and explains why they have headed into the wilds of British Columbia in search of the elusive Clay Seam:
“We thought that there would be suitable clay at this spot because we could see that there was muddy water in the ditch, and that the bottom of the ditch looked like clay.” Close up of his hand scooping out clay from the bottom of the aforementioned ditch. At this point you imagine someone in Brooklyn who bought the video because she’s going to take a Learning Annex class on pottery next week and wanted to get a head start, wondering why it is necessary to see clay in the wild when pre-made clay can be had from – well, your local clay supplier. It certainly makes you feel bad about the clay you already bought. Prefab. Machine-wrapped. It has no soul.
By some unbelievable turn of events, the clay in the muddy ditch turns out to be good for pot-making purposes, sparing Graham the humiliation of dragging a camera crew into the forest only to discover that the substance is more mud than clay. “Well, this day’s shot, boys. We’ll head off again at daybreak. Have the bearers set up camp, and if I hear one more word about this expedition being cursed I’ll thrash them all for impertinence.”
He does mention that you might find clay in “excavations in the street,” which brings a mirthless bark to the lips of our Brooklyn viewer. Right. Move over Con Ed, I’m looking for something to throw on a wheel.
Back at the studio, the assistant shovels out the clay onto a sheet while Gorden narrates the process of shoveling out the clay onto a sheet. It looks like dog vomit. He notes that clay you can use right away after you dig it out of the ground is preferable. And clay you can buy at your local clay supplier would be . . .more preferable, perhaps? Maybe just going down to the Oddjob store and buying some dishes would be preferable? Because at this rate we’re expecting we’ll have to bring down a jaguar with a blow-dart to get red for the glaze. He also notes that it would have been better to dug up the clay in the summer, when it would have been pre-dried for your convenience, “but we don’t have that luxury.”
We next meet Gordon two days later, hammering the dried clay with a mallet to break up the clumps and exposed foreign objects, like pine cones, twigs, and what appears to be a small trilobite. None of which would be found in the clay available at your local clay supplier, but never mind.
Next move: the dry clay is transferred to filthy bucket #2, where water is added. Wait a minute. Didn’t we just dry it out to remove the water? But there’s no time to ponder the manifold mysteries of clay, because we’re on the next step: transferring the contents of filthy bucket #2 into Very Large Filthy Bucket #1, pouring it through a screen. We are instructed to let the contents of VLFB #1 sit for a couple of days. The resultant goop is dumped on a board sitting on what appears to be Very Filthy Bucket #2, and then dried for another day. We’re six days into this! God created the heavens and the earth and completed all the furnishings and supporting cast members by this time, and we’re still looking at something that resembles a dinosaur’s cud. At least it’s firm enough to work with; we’re treated to a demonstration of “wedging,” which mixes the clay to even out the consistency WHICH WOULDN’T BE AN ISSUE IF YOU’D BOUGHT IT AT YOUR LOCAL CLAY SUPPLIER.
I’m sorry to shout, but really: if he hadn’t mentioned the great pre-existing clay-supplying infrastructure I would have thought nothing of it, but having admitted the existence of the Local Clay Shop, all of this seems incredibly annoying.
Modeling: he makes a small rabbit out of clay. Finally. We are getting started with clay. He makes two small pinch pots. We are really getting moving with clay. The two pots are joined into a sphere, which is rolled and gently persuaded to form the body of an elephant. We learn crucial lessons about making sure the head of the elephant stays attached after fired. At this point I realized that I do not, and never will, want to make an elephant out of six-day old ditch mud. I skip ahead at 32X speed, playing “Yakety Sax” to give it all a Benny Hill feel, and realize that Spirit!he’s wearing the same clothes he wore on Day One, when we headed into the forest in search of the elusive Lost Fountain of Clay. Oh, what heady days those were; how young we felt, so full of promise. Uh oh – he’s standing in front of a kiln now.
“This is an electric kiln. You could choose to fire your pots in a kiln such as this. It’s not necessary, however, that you have an electric kiln. We’re going to build our own simple kiln from quite simple materials, (like) demolition rubbish.”
And here our review concludes.
This was the best instructional DVD for beginning potters I have ever seen. I learned more from watching this program through just one time than in all the classes I have taken! This gentleman not only knows his craft, he can impart the information in a way that is accessible and easy to remember. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a solid base in learning to throw on the wheel.
Gordon Hutchens does a great job for the beginner in Raku. I would suggest this video for anyone who is interested in Raku as a jump start.
