Technique (2)

Making A Coffee Pot

Here is the coffee pot on the wheelhead just after being thrown. It was thrown on the octagonal board you can see below it, as it makes it much easier to get the thing off the wheel without damaging it in the process. (The board is held onto the wheel with a flat pad of clay, in case you wondered.)

The next shot is taken a few hours later, when the walls had stiffened a touch, and I had pulled the lip out. In both these pictures you can see the internal "gallery" where the lid will sit, well down inside the rim. That is one of the trickiest parts of the pot to throw, as it takes a bit of extra clay to make it, and it comes at a place where you don't normally have any to spare as you are throwing the wall upwards. it worked OK this time, though!

The next stage is to turn it upside down (next day, probably) and trim the base, and then shape the top rim by trimming off some of the height on the side away from the lip. After that the handle goes on, and then it'll be finished as a shape, and needs to dry thoroughly before the first firing.

Here is a picture showing how the handle is made. A stick of soft clay is stuck on the partly dry pot, and then "pulled" to shape with wet fingers. It does take a bit of concentration!

And then you just turn the pot over and stick the other end of the handle on at the base . . .

. . . just like that.

If you look closely, you will see that the top of the pot is no longer parallel to the base. It was trimmed to make it a more elegant profile after tidying up the base and just before putting the handle on.

The lid, of course, is a separate piece, and the next task is to fit it properly . . . could be tricky.

Now a shot of the coffee pot after biscuit firing. I'm quite pleased with it.

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