Working With Clay

 

Clay as Mutation

The most immediate quality of clay noticable is its mutable characteristic. It forms, and changes, mutating and flowing wherever you interact with it, particularly whilst working in its most common plastic form. After a couple of months of working with it I started to notice a certain personality, the forms that the clay seemed to want to form and hold were also very mutable organic surfaces. This tendancy became very visible when I started working on the wheel. Despite the constriction of rotationally symmetric forms, the cross section still formed an organic curve. One of my earliest pieces took this to quite extreme limits. I made a small bong from pieces randomly chopped from eight bowls which fell over during throwing (more recycling). It too formed an organic shape, and was one of my earliest recollected contacts with the personality of clay.

Clay as Birth

There are many mentions of clay in religeous and spiritual texts. Most religeons place clay at a very fundamental position in the Universe, being the stuff out of which Man himself was created In Christianity Adam was created from clay (Lilith, the first woman, too was made from clay - until Adam complained to God about her willfulness and got Eve as a subservient replacement). This gives the whole process of creating a pot a certain lofty position, mimicking Gods work, creating something from the firmament, and giving it form.

Clay as Continuum

Clay also exists as a continuum rather than a single simple medium. In elemental terms clay is represented by Water over Earth, and as such pottery is a balance between these complementary forces. Position of the still point found whilst creating alters as the work progresses.

Casting Mix - At one end there is the casting mix, where the clay is used to fill moulds. The clay is completely liquid and smooth.
Slurry - Slurry is used to join slabs together, its closest to the mud you get at the bottom of puddles, and is lovely to squelch your hands in.
Fresh Out-of-the-Bag - Soft and Gooey, but able to hold form, this clay is best for use with the wheel.
Clay after a couple of hours building - The clay after a while becomes much more rigid and less able to bend.
Leatherhard - When the clay is no longer pliable it is known as leatherhard, tools can be used to inscribe patterns on the surface and "turning" on wheel pieces can be done to adjust the shape.
Bone Dry - When all the water in the clay mixture has evaporated the clay becomes "Bone Dry" and decoration can be applied to the surface.
Bisque Fired - After the first firing, all the water chemically bonded to the silica atoms has left and the piece is left rock hard. Water can pass through the clay but will not hang around and dissolve it back into any of the previous states.
Glaze Fired - After the second firing, the clay becomes non-porous as the silica on the surface has fused and water can no longer pass through the clay.