Pottery Processes

By adding water to make the clay liquid, it can be poured into molds. The molds wick some of the water away, creating a clay shell within the mold. The excess liquid clay is then poured out and the shell is allowed to continue drying. Some artists consider using molds "cheating", however it can be helpful to make matching sets of items, or allow more time to be spent on surface decoration. Parts of molds can also be combined to create new pieces, for example using the handle from a vintage mug mold, but adding two of them to a different vessel to create a sugar bowl. At Rascally Rabbet, we also make our own molds from vintage glasses and other items - like our popular Solo style cups.

Hand building encompasses all the different ways to create pottery that are not slip casting and do not use a pottery wheel. This can be as simple as pinching the clay into a form, carving chunks away from a block to create your pieces (kurinuki), building walls from coils (one of the oldest techniques) or building your pieces from rolled sheets of clay called slabs. Slab building can be done largely free form, using templates, or by draping the clay onto or into forms of various kinds. Our Triangle Dishes and Pebble Plates are made by draping clay slabs over original plaster forms we created.

Sgraffito means "to scratch" in Italian, which is a perfect description of the technique. A coloured layer is applied to the piece while it is still damp, and then the design is scratched into it, revealing the natural clay underneath. This requires careful management of the timing as if the piece is too wet or too dry, it can make sgraffito more difficult or nearly impossible. Sounds finicky, right? So why would anyone do this? Because though time consuming, it can allow very fine details (which can be difficult to achieve through painting) or can create the look of a woodblock/linocut printing block, with beautiful texture in the areas where the colour was removed.

It's all in the name! Something is applied to the piece which resists glaze - or allows it to be easily removed. Wax is a common resist, as it repels the glaze, causing it to bead on the waxed surface. It cannot be removed once applied, but melts away in the kiln during firing. A resist which has been gaining popularity is liquid latex. Liquid latex can be used in very different ways than wax, as it is peeled off prior to firing. This can allow multiple layers of resist to be used in an overlapping fashion. It can be brushed or dipped on, just like wax, or it can be used in a fine tipped squeeze bottle to draw fine lines.

This technique requires a water resistant product (such as wax) to be selectively applied to fully dry but not yet fired clay. These areas are now protected from water, and a damp sponge is used to gently wipe away clay from the unprotected areas. This creates a slightly raised surface. The resist can then be applied to new areas and the process repeated to create multiple layers and depth.

Food safe ceramics can't be painted with regular paint; instead we use a special "paint" called underglaze. To get even coverage, most colours require three coats. This can make painting some fine details and linear designs tricky, since you have to do it three times without making a mistake! Once the painting is complete, the piece is then fired, then glazed, then fired again.

Mocha diffusion feels a bit like mad science! The patterns are created by using a "mocha tea" and dripping it onto a very wet clay surface. Sounds simple, but there's chemistry and experimentation required! After the vessel reaches a specific dryness level, fresh slip (liquid clay) is applied, and while still very wet, the tea is applied. This technique can create both soft and dendritic patterns. depending on how the tea is created. A colourant is combined with a mild acid to create the tea, but different acids at different strengths on different clays produce different results. This is because of the differing PH levels of the slip and the tea!