Whimsical Teapot and Cups

Donna Potter calls her choice to work with ceramics "a self-fulfilling prophecy." After all, her last name is Potter! She is a high school art teacher by day, which means she breathes, eats and sleeps pottery. And she wouldn't have it any other way. She shows how to make a teapot that is thrown on the potter's wheel and decorated with latex resists and glazes.

Materials:

stoneware clay
potter's wheel
slab roller or rolling pin
assorted throwing and sculpting tools
latex resist
glazes in desired colors

1. Sketch a pattern for the body of the teapot and the cups (figure A).

2. Cut a wedge of clay to prepare for throwing.

3. Center the clay on the potter's wheel and pull a cylinder (figure B).

4. Release the cylinder from the wheel using a cut-off wire and squish the form into an oval.

5. Place the pattern on the flattened cylinder and cut the edges using the wire. Pinch the sides together to seal (figure C).

6. Throw several spouts (figure D).

7. Let the body stiffen to the soft leather hard stage.

8. Roll a slab using a slab roller or rolling pin and affix to the bottom of the cylinder, then paddle (figure E).

9. Enclose the top by stretching and bending the sides together. Compress with fingers (figure F).

10. Cut out the lid using a cut-off wire.

11. Add the spout, handle and lifter to the teapot (figure G).

12. Let dry several days until bone-dry, bisque fire to cone 6.

13. Using a paint bush, layer glazes in desired colors; then apply latex resist in random patterns (figure H).

14. Paint black glaze over the entire surface and then remove the latex resist with a needle tool.

15. Splatter the same black glaze over the entire surface.

16. Coat with a clear glaze and fire again to cone 6 or cone 10.

17. Follow the same steps for the cups.

E-mail: dkpotter@cox.net