Pottery Tutorial - Rustic Carved Planter
'Carve Your Clay' is full of ceramic projects that focus on the clay surface. It's perfect for beginners or those with a bit more experience, covers a range of making processes and carving techniques and (I hope!) gives you loads of inspiration for your next project!
Here, I'm giving you a sneak peek of one of the projects in the book. If you like the look of this one, you can find loads more in my book here:
So, let's take a look at one of the projects. This is one of my favourites; it's made using the simplest of techniques - pinching, and the contrast between the clay and the glaze gives a really striking result.
For the forming of the vessel, you will need:
Whirler
Sponge
For the carving technique, you will need:
Loop tool
Liquid latex
Flexible metal kidney
Clay
Approx. 2lb/1kg of finely grogged black stoneware
The technique of pinching clay to form a vessel is the oldest form of making pottery. There is something extremely therapeutic about this way of working. It's a slow process, much slower than the potters wheel, but the advantage is that it allows you to really understand clay as a material; how it behaves and how best to handle it.
The clay I've used for this project it a grogged black stoneware. With the intentional imperfect shape and makers marks left by the pinching technique, I think it adds a timeless feel to the piece. I've gone for a finely grogged clay rather than a course grog. This gives the texture I'm after but doesn't get in the way of the carving. If the clay is too heavily grogged it would interfere with the pattern and be difficult to carve.
The carving on this planter is a simple overlapping pattern made with a loop tool. The striking effect of this piece comes from the contrast of the textures - the rough, earthy black clay and the smooth gloss of the white glaze highlighted by the carved design.
Forming
We're going to make a basic pinch pot for this project. Holding your ball of clay in one hand, push the thumb of your other hand into the centre. Keep pushing your thumb downwards until you start to feel it in your supporting hand. That lets you know that your base is the right thickness.
Moving in a circle, gently widen the base by squeezing with your thumb and fingers. When you have your base to the desired width, set your pot onto your whirler.
Apply consistent pressure between your thumb and fingers of one hand as you gradually work your way around the pot, turning the whirler slowly with the other hand. Start from the base and spiral your way up the top. Using the tip of your thumb on the inside of the pot will help to stop the pot flaring out too much.
Depending on the wetness of your clay, you may need to allow the clay to firm up a little halfway through. We're using a grogged clay here which has a very firm structure, ideal for hand-building. however if you find your clay is becoming too soft to work with, leave it for a half an hour and come back to it; you'll find you'll be able to thin out the walls more easily without risking the pot collapsing.
With a pinch pot you'll find that you'll end up with a wobbly rim. You can trim this off of course to get a perfectly even top, however I prefer to leave it with its natural wobble; I think it adds to its hand-built character!
Once leather-hard you can use a surform (a bit like a small cheese grater) to refine the curve at the base of the pot.
To finish, I gently smooth over the pot with a damp sponge but making sure my fingermarks are still visible.
Carving
This project has a more rustic feel than projects that are thrown on the potters wheel so I don't like to measure out too much or try to make the carving too even – I prefer it to have a more spontaneous feel, but this of course is up to you.
Starting from just below the rim of the pot, use the rounded end of your loop tool to carve out a small piece of clay. Work your way around the rim, following the undulating line and lifting the tool off gently at the end of each stroke to get a smooth, oval shape.
The second row of carving overlaps the first slightly and is placed in between the grooves. 
Repeat with the third row.
Give everything a sponge over to smooth any harsh lines and give the carving a subtle feel.
Glazing (after bisque-firing)
I've left the bottom section of this planter unglazed. The raw clay has such a tactile, rough texture that I like to leave a portion of it exposed. For the rest of the pot I've used a simple gloss white glaze.
I use a liquid latex to cover the parts of the pot that I want to leave as raw clay. I find latex works better than wax on a grogged clay like this one as it gets into all the tiny crevices.
Apply the liquid latex to the bottom portion and base of the pot, following the curves of your carving.
Once dry, dip your pot into your white glaze.
Leave for a few minutes until the glaze has dried, then peel off the latex. Note – always wear a mask when dealing with dry glaze
To highlight the carved design, use the edge of a flexible metal kidney to scrape the glaze from just the surface of the carved section.
Like the look of this one? 'Carve Your Clay' has 15 more projects for you to try. You can find it here.