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bringing the ceramicsurface to life

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carving tooltechniques

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2/12www.ceramicartsdaily.org | Copyright 2011, Ceramic Publications Company | Ceramic Carving Tool Techniques | Second Edition | 1

Advice on the Best Tools for Carving,Cutting, Scratching, and Slashing Clayby Robin Hopper

No matter how you want to approach the carving o your clay work, knowing

what tools work best or each jobor even what tools are availableis a great

way to get started.

Considerations for Carving Clayby Emily Reason

Carving into a clay surace can be very gratiying, but when youre making pieces

or use, you need to be mindul that the carving accentuates the unction, rather

than hindering it. Being attentive to a ew basic design considerations will help

you keep your clay carving appropriate to the orm.

Making and Glazing Incized Wareby Ann Selberg

Whether you work with sgrafto, relie carving, incized line decoration, or some

other clay carving technique, there are a ew tricks to successully glazing ware

with carved suraces.

Ceramic Carving Tool Techniques

Bringing the Ceramic Surface to Life

One o the best ways to make a piece o clay work as your own is to literally put your mark on it. In Ceramic Carving TooTechniques: Bringing the Ceramic Surface to Life, you will learn to go urther, bringing the orm and surace o your

work together into a signature style using a variety o clay carving tools in combination with carving techniques like sgra-

fto, etching, wire-cutting, relie carving, and more.



Advice on the Best Toolsfor Carving, Cutting,

Scratching, and Slashing Clayby Robin Hopper

An innite variety o graphic marks can bemade in sot clay through the use o a wideassortment o knives, orks, scalpels, weldingrods, wire-ended or wooden modeling tools,

sticks, bones, awls, needles, saws, wires, kitchen uten-sils, and just about anything that can be creatively em-

ployed to produce an image, mark or sign. The natureo working with tools is such that artists usually developavorites that seem to become extensions o their hands.Most potters and ceramic artists I know seem to haveboxes o tools selected or made or specic processeso surace enrichment. They invariably are seeking theone tool that will out-perorm all others, eel better inthe hand or just be more pleasurable in use. Tools eithercan be purchased or ound objects. In sensitive hands,sometimes the most unlikely looking implements givethe greatest results. Almost any tool takes time to giveout its secrets or best use, so continued play or explora-

tion o potential is a given i you want to use tools totheir optimum level. Slight variations o pressure, twistor movement can produce or reveal the most amazingcomplexity o marks rom even the simplest o tools.

Tools and MethodsThe tools that seem to perorm best with either sotor leather-hard claythe states where most slashing,scratching, carving, and cutting is doneare primar-ily tools with sharp points or edges. Clays generally

are abrasive, nely granular materials that quickly willtake the edge o o soter metal tools. Most cuttingtools perorm best when kept sharp. The types o ma-terial used or ceramic tool making varies rom airlysot alloy metals to knie-quality steel and beyond, intotungsten carbide, a ne, very hard crystalline material.

The price o the tool oten will indicate the quality.The better the quality, the more eciently it will do thejobs required o it. Inexperienced clay workers otenblame themselves or problems caused by tools that areinadequate or the job. Potters tools that are packagedas beginner sets oten make an already dicult process

more so with unsatisactory tools that quickly becomedull rom abrasion, causing unwanted chattering, orbouncing, o the tool on the clay because it is too dullto cut properly.

Cutting and scratching tools. Wire cut harp.

Photos(un

lessotherwisenoted):Ju

diDye

lle



The best tools are usually individually handmade bysmall companies that understand exactly what the potterneeds rom personal experience and discussion with thepeople who use them. Tools made rom high-qualityknie steel, such as those made by Dolan Tools, willoutperorm sot metal tools and keep an edge againstthe abrasive qualities o clay or a long time. Knie steeleasily can be sharpened with a le to maintain a sharpcutting edge.

The best and most long-lasting edge on pottery cuttingtools is provided by tungsten carbide, a material con-siderably harder than steel. Even though it is very hard,crystalline tungsten carbide is extremely brittle, and toolsmade rom it should be used careully. Avoid droppingthese tools on hard suraces, as they may break. Tung-sten carbide tools are usually individually handmade bysmall companies, such as Bison Tools. Although moreexpensive than metal tools, the cutting quality o tungstencarbide tools is much better. They are even capable otrimming and cutting through bisque ware! Should they

require sharpening, they can be returned to the company.For the serious potter, tungsten carbide tools are prob-ably the most satisactory tools, turning what was otenmundane work into sheer pleasure.

Buy the best tools you can aord, or make your ownusing the best materials you can aord.

CuttingThe way clay cuts depends on both the state o the mate-rial and the cutting tool. As a general rule when usingknives and scalpels, the stier the clay, the more easilycontrolled the cut, and the soter the clay, the more resis-

tance there will be to the cutting tool. Clay tends to causethe knie blade to drag by sticking to its surace.

Wire CuttingThe potters wire is much more than a tool or separatinga thrown pot rom the wheelhead or throwing bat. Itcan be simply a fexible wire with a handle at each end,or it can be tted into a handle similar to a small wood-workers bow saw and tightened to orm a rigid cuttingedge. Such a tool can have numerous interchangeableplain or twisted cutting wires to give a wide variation opossible cuts.

The twist wire shows multiple cuts that pick up onthe eatures o the glaze, emphasizing the thick and thinqualities. Twisted wires with a much greater textural em-phasis can be made rom sprung wire curtain rod, whichis oten used or stringing kitchen curtains and is usu-ally covered with a plastic coating. This can be ound inold-ashioned hardware stores. Ater removing the plasticcoating, the wire can be gripped with needle-nosed pliersand stretched to create a variety o wavelike patterns ogrooves. Pulling this type o wire through sot clay andmoving it rom side to side will give a surace evocative osandy beaches ater the tide has receded. Using the pro-

cess o slab making by throwing a block o clay on a hardsurace, wire cutting it into slabs and pulling and stretch-ing the sheets o sot textured clay on a hard surace al-lows or a great variety o expanded patterns.

CarvingSurace carving is usually done best with a variety otoolsrom knives and gouges to wire-ended modelingtoolswhen the clay is leather-hard. The thickness o theobjects to be carved should be considered careully earlyin the process.

Surace Expansion

Creating linear images in sot slabs o clay or in sotthrown clay cylindrical orms and then pushing rom be-neath or inside the thrown orm allows expansion o theimage and textural development at the same time. Spray-ing or brushing the surace with a solution o sodiumsilicate and quick drying it with a blowtorch or heat gunwhile leaving the underside or inside o the orm quitesot will produce remarkable surace textures when theclay expands rom beneath or inside. Oten resemblingaged, tooled leather, these textured suraces react wellwith thinly sprayed colorants or glazes or when red inwood, salt or soda ring kilns.

Marc Leutholds Wheel, Anagama Series, 20 in. (50 cm) indiameter, 2 in. thick, wood-fred stoneware, 2002.



TearingRipping clay is best done when the clay is sot leather-hard. At this state it is easier to grip without sliding andto either gently tease apart or vigorously tear, depend-ing on how you want it to look or eel. Clay oten hasa will o its own when being ripped, and sometimes aew guiding pinpricks along the tear line makes controlsomewhat easier.

FlutingFluting is the process o cutting decorative grooves into a

clay surace. It is best done on leather-hard clay with wire-ended modeling tools o various shapes, bamboo tools withsharpened edges or metal tools with cutout sections and/or sharpened edges. I the clay is too sot, it may deormthe object being futed; i it is too hard, it may crack thesurace or edges o the object. Fluting generally is done ina dragging motion, pulling down toward you in a clean,sweeping motion. The clay will cut cleanly and evenly atthis stage i your tools are sharp. I the clay has started tochange color or the surace is starting to dry, the tool ismore likely to slide uncontrollably than cut easily. Unlessyou want loose grooving o the surace, futing is a meticu-lous and time-consuming process.

On a round orm, some people mark out exactly howmany strokes are needed so the last and rst strokes will beequally spaced. Others do it by eye, allowing the spacing toexpand or contract as the last ew cuts are made.

Fluting oten leaves a burr at the edge o the cut mark.I this is undesirable, it can be removed in the leather-hardstate with a damp sponge, or in the dry state with a sot,abrasive pad, such as a sotened kitchen scouring pad.

Fluting doesnt necessarily have to be deep to be eective.The nal quality o this type o mark usually lies with the

glaze used over the top. I high-temperature futed porcelainis covered with a transparent or translucent glaze such asa celadon, the futing can be very shallow yet still visiblebecause the glaze pools in the slight depressions, giving avariety o tones. Deep futing is perhaps most eective withhigh contrast glazes, where there is a strong variation incolor rom thick to thin and the thinning glaze emphasizes

edges dramatically. High iron content Tenmoku glazes thatare dark brown to black when thick and almost orangewhen thin are a good example o high-contrast glazes.

Fluted suraces oten are enhanced greatly by wood, saltor soda ring. With suitable glazes, futed suraces can beurther altered by sandblasting.

Pineapple or Crosscut FlutingAnother traditional orm o futing uses cuts in oppositedirections, either diagonally, or vertically and horizontal-ly. This generally is known as pineapple, or crosscut, fut-ing in reerence to the diamond- or square- shaped protru-

Fluting tools.

Fluted pitchers, bisque fred.



sions let rom the original surace. As described above,all futed objects play beautiully with glazes across theirsuraces, emphasizing edges and depths by various coloror texture changes.

FacetingFaceting is done by cutting the clay surace into a serieso wide, fat planes. Cutting wires, large knives or carpen-ters blades are oten used or aceting, and the processis best done on clay between the sot and leather-hardstates. Since aceting emphasizes fat planes and edges,

it will be enhanced by glazes and the ring processesdescribed or futing.

SgraftoSgrato comes rom the Italian word or scratch, andit describes the process o making marks by scratchingdesigns into suraces. The tools used or sgrato are basi-cally anything with a sharp point. A personal avorite omine is a 9-inch length o welders brazing rod ground toa point or chisel shape, then sanded smooth. The rod hasa good het in my hand, and it has a short length o rub-ber tubing to enhance the grip.

Sgrato can be done directly into the clay, through alayer o slip or pigment or even through glazes. For art-ists who enjoy the drawing process, sgrato is similarto drawing on paper with pen and ink or hard pencil.Sgrato drawings made directly into the clay can beurther enhanced by lling the lines with ceramic colo-rants. The colorants can be applied as a solution withwater, then cleaned o the excess with a ne scouringpad. Or they can be applied with a ball o cotton wooland powdered color.

Since sgrato processes oten cause considerable dust,it is recommended that you wear a dust mask. Sgra-to through slips, engobes or underglazes into the bodyis best done at leather-hard through dry states. Sgra-to through the glaze and down to the bisque usuallyproduces the best results when the glaze is still damp.A colored slip coating on the object beore bisque ringoten gives greater emphasis to the drawn design, par-ticularly when it contrasts with the glaze color. Glazesor use with sgrato processes should have at least 10percent clay content to prevent possible crawling prob-lems caused by glaze loosening rom the bisque suracein the scratching process.

Saw Blades, Cut Kidneysand Texture ToolsSaw blades; sections o saw blades; fat, metal kidneyswith toothed edges; or notched tile installation toolsall make great tools or producing sweeping multilin-ear marks, particularly on sot clay. As with the futed

surace, the marks made by toothed tools are greatlyenhanced by many glazes and ring processes. Brokenhacksaw and band saw blades can be recessed into wood-en handles to make them easier to use. To increase thevariation in the linear markings, some teeth can easily beremoved with a le or carborundum grinder. The markscan be thought o as miniature futing, done in a singlesweep or movement.

PiercingPiercing, or peroration, can be done with ne knives;metal tubes, usually brass; drill bits or wood or metal;

or small, shaped brass tubes with retractable springs thatpush the cut pieces out o the tube. Timing is o the ut-most importance when doing this type o work. I the clayis too sot, the object will deorm or warp in subsequentring. I it is too sti, it likely will crack under the pres-sure o the piercing tool.

Fine ligree piercing also can be done ater bisque ringwhen there is less likelihood o risk rom breakage. Finetungsten-tipped drill bits can be used in small Dremel orForedom type drills. There likely will be a considerableamount o dust, so its a good idea to wear a saety dustmask and glasses.

CleaningAny o the previously mentioned processes that cre-ate dust should prompt you to careully clean the piecebeore ring or beore glazing to prevent glaze applica-tion problems caused by dust or loose particle buildup.Crawling is the most serious o these problems. Small,sti, coconut ber brushes are available in multiple sizesin ceramic supply stores and are invaluable or cleaningsuch suraces.

Rachelle Chinnerys Flores Series, 14 in. (35cm) in length,carved porcelain, cast bronze base, 2003.

Photo:EmuGoto



Tableware, large plate, 11 in. (28 cm) in diameter, porcelain, fred to cone 10 reduction.

Emily Reason:Considerations

for Carving

D

innerware is a challenge tomake because it demands spe-cic qualities. It must be consis-tent in design, size and shape i

its to be a set. I nd that i I dont makeall the plates or all the bowls or a set inone sitting, theyll vary rom one series tothe next. Dinnerware pieces should alsonest and stack well, and be durable, yetlightweight. In addition to the challengeso making dinnerware, theres the logisticalchallenge o eciently loading a kiln withmostly broad and fat wares. The variablesin reduction ring present urther challeng-es in attaining consistent glaze surace. Ithereore try to re entire sets at once. Din-

Carved plate, 11 in. (28 cm) in diameter, por-celain, fred to cone 10 in reduction.



Candlestick holders, 6 in. (15 cm) in height, porcelain, fred to cone 10 in reduction, 2010.

Carved serving bowls, to 14 in. (36 cm) in diameter, thrown andaltered porcelain, fred to cone 10 in reduction.

nerware needs to t in well with daily liestyle,including the ability to go in the dishwasher.

Know When to Say WhenIm currently obsessed with carving. Veryew pieces I make arent carved. Clay is trulythe ideal material or creating texture; espe-cially since clay objects are so oten meant tobe touched. Making unctional ceramics withtexture is thereore tting or me. Creat-ing beauty, while maintaining a standard ouseulness, is my major goal. Its importantthat my carved and slip trailed suraces dontdeter rom the unction o the piece. My din-

nerware design has a scalloped service rimthat is carved. The ood surace itsel has no



Above: To make the scalloped rim on my dinnerware pieces, I frst cut through the leather-hard rim with a fne-blade knie. Isoten the cut edge by compressing a damp sponge between my fngers and repeatedly run it over the edge o the rim. Theresult is a refned edge that is still adequately thick or durability.

Below: My homemade carving tool was modeled ater a tool used to create carved patterns on Chinese Yaoware pottery. TheL-shaped blade, set in a bamboo handle, is used to create a pleated pattern o lines that will catch pooling glaze.

texture and a glossy glaze or easy cleaning. Its easyto get carried away with making texture, so I try toleave quiet areas on each piece where there is none.

I use a homemade carving tool, which was mod-eled ater a tool used to create carved patterns onChinese Yaoware pottery (see page 49). The L-shaped blade, set in a bamboo handle, is used to cre-ate a pleated pattern o lines. For me, carving lines

is a rhythmic motion that achieves even, consistentmarks. The corner o the L, carves into the leather-hard clay, making the deepest part o the recessedline. The tool is eective in achieving a line withdepth, allowing the glaze to vary as it pools in thedeepest part o the line.

MarketingThe dinnerware I make is pretty labor intensive, so Ihave to price it accordingly. My customer demographicor it tends to be olks with disposable income. Theyalso seem to be people with knowledge o and an ap-preciation or fne handmade crat. Im still learning asI go about marketing strategies or selling my work. Iknow or certain that proessional quality photographs

are where good marketing begins.

Emily Reason lives and works in Marshall, North Carolina. To seemore of her work, visitwww.emilyreason.com orhttp://emilyreason.blogspot.com . Her tableware was included in TableManners, at Lark & Key Gallery (www.larkandkey.com) in Char-lotte, North Carolina.



Incising suits my temperament. It satises my love opattern and order. It is subtle. Ive ound inspirationin incised Cycladic terra cotta at the Getty Museum,Pueblo pottery at the Heard Museum and art pottery

at the Terra Museum.Originally all my designs were done reehand on the pot.

Some o my art training precedes the use o computers orgraphics and signage. I was taught to do layout by hand.I became a competent calligrapher. The concept o eye-balling it rather than precisely measuring, and the calligra-phers understanding that in drawing a line one also createsspace around the line and relationships to nearby lines,are with me during incising. Some ideas do require pencilsketching rst.

I use a small, U-shaped trimming tool while the clay isleather hard. Some experimentation is involved in deter-mining the proper depth o the incised groove. Designs thatcall or fuid hand movement help necessitate even depthand smooth line work. I m always thinking o how myhand will move across the pot with the tool, as well as how

Making and GlazingIncised Ware

by Ann Selberg

This wheel-thrown porcelain vase was careully incisedand fred to Cone 10 in reduction, by Ann Selberg.

As a seasoned calligrapher, Anns incised lines are as much about the drawn marks as theyare about the space around the line and their relationship to nearby lines.



the shape o the specic pot is enhanced by incising.Because the sole decoration on my pots is relie cre-

ated by incising, breaking glazes set o the patterns best.A matte or semi-matte surace suits the character o the

pieces. Each pot is dipped in a single glaze.A narrow, deep groove will cause air bubbles to orm

when the pot is dipped in glaze. I the mark is too shal-low it will be lost in a coat o glaze. Horizontal lines ona piece tend to gather bubbles, so these pots should enterthe glaze diagonally.

It has always been my inclination to avoid gauges andscientic equipment in relation to pottery making. Thereis certainly a sense that some o the mystery and the sportwill be lost. When the old-ashioned method o stick-ing my hand in the glaze to test or thickness could not

satisy my need or consistent results with the incising,an $18 investment in a hydrometer helped me nd theproper glaze consistency, where patterns show throughthe glaze and there is still sucient glaze to create a pleas-

ing surace. This little instrument proved to be worth itsweight in cobalt carbonate. It is a sealed blown-glass tubeweighted on one end so it foats upright in the glaze. Ithas a graded scale on the side that is calibrated to indi-cate specic gravity o a liquid at 60 F (15.5 C). Specicgravity is the measure o the density o a given substancecompared to the density o the same volume o water. Formy glazes, a specic gravity between 1.6 and 1.65 is agood place to start. It seems that each glaze has a slightlydierent ideal specic gravity, which also may vary with achange o clay body.

Breaking glazes set o the patterns bestin Anns carved pieces. To enhance the pat-terns, she uses matte or semi-matte glazeswhich break rom the carved lines and addurther to the decoration.


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