WHERE USE AND BEAUTY ARE COMBINED
For the next coil no cross-cutting with the tool is necessary, but otherwise the process is the same in joining this and subsequent coils. Care should be taken to press the clay firmly against the walls of the mould, as well as upon the coil below. When the inside of the mould is covered, if a deeper bowl is desired, add one or two more coils above the edge, taking care to have them slope in such a way as to continue the lines of the bowl. It is then set away to harden. The next day the clay will have dried and shrunk sufficiently to come easily away from the plaster. The bowl is then placed bottom up on a table or flat slab, and the hollows left between the coils on the outside are wet with slip and filled in evenly, with clay of the consistency of that in the piece. This will take time and care. The bowl is then allowed to dry for an hour or two. Next it is carefully scraped and made even; first with the oval steel tool with a saw edge, held at right angles with the bowl and curved to fit the form: this is to get the large bumps off. It is then carefully evened off with the smooth-edged oval tool bent to fit the curves of the bowl. The inside is made smooth and even in the same way, brushing any deep hollows with slip and filling them in with clay. This process should be carefully and conscientiously done, so that the walls of the bowl, as one feels them between finger and thumb, are even and free from lumps. They should not be more than a quarter of an inch thick.
A damp sponge is then passed over the bowl, and the fingers and thumb smooth and polish it outside and in. The edge is trimmed as evenly as possible by eye with a steel tool and then bevelled as follows:
On a large slab of ground glass pour a little water, which should be spread over the glass till it is thoroughly wet. Now, holding the bowl bottom up, firmly with both hands, press its edge quickly and with a circular motion flat on the glass. It must be done so rapidly and deftly that it will not stick, but makes the edge even and true. Slip it off at the side of the slab instead of lifting it up from the centre. The bottom is finished as described in Chapter II. If this is done in the morning, the bowl will be ready for the decoration in the afternoon. This is a band of orange leaves (see [Fig. 25]), deeply incised near the top of the bowl on the inside (see Chapter IV.). More character will be given to the design if the line is broad and deep, particularly at the points of the leaves, which are thus emphasised. This piece being so large, should, if possible, be fired in the biscuit and then finished, inside and out, with a dark-green mat-glaze (see Chapter V.), and fired again.
Candlestick, Thumb Design
Materials required: