Pottery Making At Home
Pottery is formed at home by following these steps:
- Obtaining the customized clay, clean it of unwanted particles, and knead it to obtain a material of suitable texture.
- Shaping the desired stereo by hand by pressing on the clay material to reach the desired shape, or using the rotary machine for this purpose, by placing an appropriate amount of clay for the size of the stereo to be made on the center of the rotating machine to form what looks like a hump to start the rolling process.
- Focus on the top of the hump formed using the hands, to form a small amount of clay at the top and start forming the features of the desired stereo, whether it is a cup, bowl or other shapes.
- Moving the hand in a way that allows the desired shape to be represented and refined from all sides.
- Use a dedicated tool to remove the stereoscopic produced by the rotary machine when the desired shape is obtained.
- Treating the piece by smoothing its outer surface by removing the appendages from the resulting object and polishing it, in addition to carving the desired decorations using special tools, followed by the process of coloring using fingers, a brush, or a piece of cloth.
- Leave the object in the air to dry and store it for two to three days.
- Grill the pieces to make them firmer and drier, then take them out the next day after grilling after they have cooled.
Pottery:
The pottery industry is one of the old industries, which depends on drawing the design of a piece of pottery before starting its manufacture, and a basic material is used in its manufacture, which is clay; The following are the main steps that are applied during the manufacture of pottery.
Clay mixing:
Clay mixing is the first step in the pottery industry, and it depends on the wetting of the clay; By adding water to it while it is in a tank suitable for mixing, and this process continues until the clay becomes moldable, after the water - which makes up 30% of it - is distributed among all its components, then the clay is pressed using filters and filters, which contribute to the disposal of Excess water from it before placing it on the mill for starting work on the pottery industry.
Lumen:
The cavity is the step in which the potter uses his hands to shape the depth of the pottery, or he may use a special machine for the pottery cavity, which helps him to make hollow pots, such as: vases. Forming the hollow of the vase until the manufacturer reaches its required size, and ready-made molds may be used to help hollow the vases in an easy, fast, and accurate way at the same time, before starting to prepare them to apply the subsequent steps.
Casting:
Casting is casting pottery into molds of gypsum, and this increases the durability and dryness of pottery. Because gypsum absorbs the remnants of water in the clay components, which have not dried yet, the gypsum mold may contain a group of shapes and decorations that are used in decorating pottery, appearing on the outer layer of it, and adding a beautiful shape to it.
Glazing:
Glazing is the penultimate step in making pottery, and it depends on making sure that it is completely dry; In preparation for the use of colors, to add paint to it, and one color or a mixture of colors may be used in this, which increases the uniqueness and beauty of the piece. The method of spraying paint is often used; It adds some shapes to the pottery if no inscriptions or decorations were used on the outer surface of the piece, while it was in the plaster mould.
Burn:
Burning is the last step in the pottery making process, in which coal, wood, or electric kilns are used; to expose the pottery to the highest possible temperature; So that it contributes to drying it, and drying the paint on it within all its outer and inner layers, and after making sure that the pottery is completely dry, then it is ready for use according to what it was made for.