Emily

About Emily

https://www.emilybrownceramics.com

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September 13 2023

Glaze Techniques

The uniqueness of my pottery is due in part to my glaze techniques. I have been experimenting with layering different glazes and oxides to see how they interact on the pot. I use a combination of application techniques that include spraying, brushing, dipping, and pouring. I then fire the pieces to 2345°F while systematically depriving the kiln of oxygen. The glazes look completely different before and after I fire them, and I am never completely sure how they are going to come out.

Kiln unloading day is filled with anxious anticipation. There may be some disasters, always some that are mediocre, and if I’m lucky, I’ll pull out something magical that surprises me. Then, I work diligently through many firing cycles trying to repeat that magic.

September 13 2023

Letting Go

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I took my first pottery class in college in the early 1980’s. I sat at my wheel as my instructor talked me through throwing a cylinder. It was a challenge; my pot was small, misshapen, and had taken me an hour to make. And it was precious to me. He then told me to cut it in half. What? Don’t you know how long it took me to make that? What if I can’t ever make one like that again? I cut it in half

Developing expertise at pottery requires thousands of hours of practice, with many malformed pots along the way. In the beginning, my urge was to save each one. They were, after all, things I created with my hands from a desire in my heart and a vision in my head. Like children, in a way. Precious. Soon, however, my garden became filled with my failures. My kitchen cupboards overflowed with quirky little darlings.

Becoming proficient required me to realize that each pot was not precious unto itself, but a step in the journey. Each pot that fails at the wheel, or emerges from the kiln different than expected, is not a cause for sorrow, but a gift of greater knowledge and experience

September 13 2023

The Art of Pottery

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Making pottery is a multi-step process that consists of throwing, trimming, bisque firing, glazing, and glaze firing.

I begin by weighing out a piece of clay and wedging it to remove air bubbles and get the spiral process going. I then center the ball of clay onto the pottery wheel and start “throwing” the piece which involves opening it and shaping it. Once the piece is thrown, it must rest and dry until it is leather hard. I then invert the piece and trim the excess clay from the bottom and shape the foot. The piece then dries some more until it is no longer cold to the touch, and then it gets loaded into the kiln and fired the first time up to about 1800 °. This bisque firing process causes permanent physical and chemical changes to the clay. Moisture is removed from the clay, and organic materials in it are burned out. The process also allows the clay particles to bond and transforms it from greenware to a more durable state called ceramic.

In this state, the piece is now ready to glaze. I apply glaze by dipping the piece in the glaze, pouring the glaze over, or spraying the glaze onto the piece. It then gets loaded back into the kiln and undergoes its second firing, the glaze firing, up to around 2345°. Once the kiln has cooled, the pot can be sanded and finished as necessary.

September 13 2023

Persistence

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Learning to make sets of things can be daunting. To throw the same form over and over again with precision takes a certain amount of tenacity. Pick a time when you have a couple of hours to throw without distraction. Consistency in all aspects is the key. Measure everything! Have a notebook to write down all of your measurements, and keep the notes for reference.

Start by wedging up the clay you want, precisely weighing each chunk, and wrapping them in plastic within reach of your throwing area. Start with at least 8 balls of clay. Have all of your bats also within reach. Center your first ball, and measure the width that you center it to, as you want to do each of them the same. As you open it up, measure the thickness of the floor with your needle tool. A fraction of an inch difference in floor depth can throw off the consistency of the pieces. If you use a rib for throwing, use the same one for every piece, as the shape of the rib influences the shape of the pot. Measure the final width that you open the pot to, and do each one the same. Finally, measure the height and width of the finished piece. Finish the rim of each one the same, and trim each foot the same, taking measurement of the foot width. Even with painstaking efforts, there will be some variation in your pieces, they are handmade! By glazing them all the same, you can minimize these variations.

The repetition of making sets can be both soothing and annoying depending on your mood. Nothing will improve your skills more, though, so stick with it!