Pottery Making: How to Make Funky Vases

Pottery Making: How to Make Funky Vases - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. I am going to show you how to make this fun form. I call them my funky vases. You throw these with an open bottom. That is, you drop your hole straight down to the bat, open up your piece, and throw your walls. I kind of did this with my chalices. I dropped the open forms so it is a hollow piece. And then once your piece is formed, your neck is collared, your walls are intact, you will enclose, squeeze the piece together, enclose it down here, and you have got your little funky vase. Some things you might use this for, obviously, some nice flowers. You could put some burning oil in here, scented oil, and just light it for a candle, for instance. And make it even a nice candlestick. In order to make the funky vases, we are going to flatten this out a little bit so we have a wide bottom. Open our piece up and go straight down to the bat. So I am down to the bat. Open our piece up, nice round. And then we will pull the walls up. Pulling the walls up and I am starting to cone in for my neck, just as I did with the enclosed. Now you can add on to clay once it is in a leather-hard, or not quite leather-hard, state easily. You can roll out coils, add on to your piece with coils, and then leave it like that or put it back on the wheel and smooth that out. People who make vases that are six feet or taller definitely make it in sections. And then they will throw a section, and then they will put it on top of it, and then they will throw another section, and put it on top of it. You just have to keep in mind the size of the kiln you are going to be throwing in. You do not want to make it so thick that it is going to be too hard to lift and use, and also if it is too thick, it might cause problems in the kiln. It might blow. You might think it is dry, and it is not. So it does take a long time for pieces to dry when they are quite thick. I tend to throw thinly and that is neither good nor bad. I guess the main thing is to throw consistently and have your walls at an even thickness, whether you are a thick thrower or a thin thrower. All right, so my form is made. I am going to take my wire, place a little water underneath there, and cut it off the wheel. Then I am going to squeeze, and squeeze. And this does not seem to be squeezing so much. Give it a little break there. And squeeze. So, as you can see, the beginning of my funky pot. And you have got quite a bit down here. And once it gets leather-hard, or not quite leather-hard, but it is still soft enough to manipulate, you are going to just start enclosing the bottom by pinching and manipulating so that it will all close up. And it is still, it is just a little bit too wet for me to work right now. Now we're going to let it dry, work with it a little bit more, and you will have your funky sculpture or a vase. So now that we've thrown it, let it dry, and I bisque fired it and glazed it in this white. I like it. I also put some little fun designs on the bottom, just to make it a little more interesting. I love it. I can put it on my shelf and use it just as a sculptural object. I can put some colorful flowers in it. Or else I can stick a candle in it and use it as a centerpiece in a candlestick.