“Damn, this mug is off center at the throwing stage. I’ll just fix it when I trim”
“Wedged my clay for 5 minutes instead of 10..should still be fine”
“Put lotion on my hands 3 hours ago but now I need to glaze some pots..I’m sure this action will have no impact on the results of my glaze”
We’ve all told ourselves these lies. Clay never forgives and it also never forgets. Which is why pottery mistakes are essential part of the process. But you stick with clay because when it works, it works soooo good. But in order to get to that point, you’ve probably encountered some of the below pottery mishaps.
1. You Didn’t Obsess Over Your Joins With Your Usual Vigour and Compulsion
So, you wanted to be chill about attaching handles and decided that, because none of the instagram videos of potters attaching handles ever show them reinforcing handles, you shan’t either. You’re experienced enough now, you don’t need to do that either. Waste. Of. Your. Precious. Time.
WRONG.
Those handles are cracking off in the morning. Unless your handles and clay body are both at the optimal level of dryness and you have the dexterity of a fine carpenter to get your pinky in those teeny nooks and crannies, spare yourself the heartache and reinforce those handles.
2. Forgot to Wire off Your Piece
Picture it – you just threw the greatest cylinder this world (and probably others) have ever seen. Walls are straight, thin but sturdy and looking absolutely stunning. The form is unique but functional. The floor is thick enough for future trimming but not gratuitous.
You admire your master piece, put it on your dry shelf and head home, praising your accomplishments…
But you made the mistake of forgetting to wire off your pot and so you try wire off the next day and almost losing a damn finger.. but the piece is PERFECTION. It’s worth one lousy digit. The wire breaks. You use your studio mates wire. Almost lose a finger, slice through the past leather-hard clay, break out the rib to try to pry it off in a last ditch effort and finally get it off, totally warping the piece and causing yourself bodily harm.
3. Ran a Glaze Firing Instead of a Bisque
Getting cocky when firing up the kiln, feeling like some kind of mad scientist confidently selecting the settings for YOUR CREATIONS, you don’t need to mess around with no youtube tutorials or instruction manuals.. YOU are a master of this machine.
Psyche. This machine owns you and you’ve set the kiln to glaze instead of bisque and now your little once-bone-dry pieces won’t suck up any glaze.
Hot Tips:
- You can try microwaving your piece for 30 seconds and then dipping in glaze. This is supposed to make it more porous.
- Try dipping the glaze fired piece in 1 coat of glaze and then let it dry – this will take a really long time because you’re waiting for the water in the glaze to evaporate rather than absorb into the clay body. Once this is done, go in for a second dip for better glaze coverage on the piece.
4. Spilled Glaze EVERYWHERE
A pottery mistake of epic proportions. Glaze is everywhere – and all because you wanted to try out that swirl and dump method. And as you’re wiping it up, you get flashbacks of what a pain in the ass it was to sieve this glaze for 20 minutes. You mentally calculate the cost of materials lost. This glaze had cobalt in it for God’s sake! And you ruminate on every choice you’ve ever made that has led up to this moment.
