• Subscribe to Blog via Email

    Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 4,530 other subscribers

An Ancient Clay Trick

In my college clay class I learned this extremely valuable clay trick.  One of my students called it an “ancient clay secret” so I like to call it that too.  This technique may be one that is known to you, but if you have never seen it, this technique may be helpful to you in your classroom.  This has saved many pots from falling over in my teaching career.

Uh-oh!  The walls are lopsided and falling over!  What do I do?
Step One:  Take a sharp knife and carefully cut a triangle out of the pot.  You might want to practice this technique before you actually use it on a student’s work.
Step Two:  Take the two edges and stick them together.  Use a bit of water (slip) and score the two sides in order to secure them.
Step Three:  Use your smoothing techniques to create a smooth seam.  I like to use the back of a spoon and my hand to smooth together seams.
Step Five:  Let’s try it again on the other side to even it up.
Step Six:  Continue smoothing the pot!  Voila, doesn’t that look much better?

This post is sponsored by Creighton University, offering Doctor of Education online.

Bookmark the permalink.

About Marcia Beckett

Marcia is an elementary art teacher and loves painting, drawing, sculpture, art journaling and clay. Her blog, Art is Basic, features many exciting art projects for kids.

3 Responses to An Ancient Clay Trick

  1. Katie Morris says:

    I've kind of pinched the extra clay back together before but never thought of the wedge trick. It's a good one, thanks!

  2. DIAN says:

    Great hint. Thanks

  3. Wow so good post i like it so much and i hoipe to visit my blog Cars Catalog and it talking about مجلة السيارات http://Www.CatalogsCars.Com thanks again ,,,

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.