Tuesday 22 July 2008

Chuck it.

OK this is for Paul as he was befuddled by my last chuck (which admittedly might have had more to do with him having just come back from the pub than my blogging) here is how we make a turning chuck, use an old seconds flower pot (this one is about 25 years old) tapped on centre and stuck to the wheel head with three or four bits of clay. Then add some slightly stiffer clay to the rim.
Cut rim to shape with a wire or I use a strong needle.


Then I put some torn news paper around the rim so that the pots don't stick, it also drys out the clay a little over about half an hour.



I only use a chuck for difficult shapes, (you can't put these pots on a pad of clay upside down for turning.)




Place the pot in the chuck for turning and tap on centre (If you don't know about tapping on centre you'll just have to wait until I can figure out how to do video on this thing).


trim off untidy excess clay from base.









Then stamp the pot.




Bet you can't guess what it is yet.










My take on an old coin bank (we do piggy banks as well but here we have the piggy bank manager at his desk with computer to hand).





I will tidy him up tomorrow.











I need a better mobile phone! Well not the phone bit as I hate telephones but I need a better camera that will fit in my jeans and can be used at the blink of an eye as my phones camera can, if I only had a zoom on this thing I'd have a cracking picture of this Buck Roe Deer but as it is all we can see is a wee brown splodge lying down in the grass in the middle of the clearing! Annoying init?











P,S, Web site is back good as new.





2 comments:

Ron said...

Good lesson there Alan. I love the pig on the bank. Nice pot. I take it there's not going to be a stopper or anything. I ask b/c I made some money boxes similar to the one's Doug makes and several people asked me how to get the money out. I told them they were 'historically accurate' money boxes. ie no stopper.

Alan from Argyll Pottery said...

I use a table / dinner knife. (Rounded edge), or a hammer!