Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In my YouTube video this Sunday, I’m making a shape that has been very requested, from beginning to end—it’s an absurdly simple form, a low and wide store jar, thrown on wooden bats and trimmed within an inch of it’s life, well the lid at least. (You can find the fully narrated, 37-minute long film, by tapping the Linktree in my profile’s biography and by clicking the YouTube option at the top).
Fundamentally they should be easy pots to create, yet any object when refined to this level is difficult to make, you don’t have to push things to the sometimes absurd level I take them, but it’s a challenge I relish. I’m throwing and trimming seven of these jars in total, with a number of tips and tricks dropped into the narrative that hopefully help you make your own lidded forms with more ease.
Hereafter, I discuss the biscuit firing, waxing, glazing and reduction firing to cone ten and finally, and perhaps the most important step of the entire process, the lids are carefully pried off, as the wadding mixture I use can get rather stuck in place when heavily reduced, so the lids are tapped off with a hunk of wood, the waddings are then removed, and finally the lids are ground in place using greasy Chemico valve lapping paste—all before washing the stuff off with hot soapy water.
There’s a lot to these vessels, despite their minimal appearance and I’m already eager to make a second batch soon, as I always figure out so many subtleties that could be improved upon…
Thanks for watching!
#pottery #jar #handmade #clay #maker #ceramics #reductionfired
In my YouTube video this Sunday, I’m making a shape that has been very requested, from beginning to end—it’s an absurdly simple form, a low and wide store jar, thrown on wooden bats and trimmed within an inch of it’s life, well the lid at least. (You can find the fully narrated, 37-minute long film, by tapping the Linktree in my profile’s biography and by clicking the YouTube option at the top).
Fundamentally they should be easy pots to create, yet any object when refined to this level is difficult to make, you don’t have to push things to the sometimes absurd level I take them, but it’s a challenge I relish. I’m throwing and trimming seven of these jars in total, with a number of tips and tricks dropped into the narrative that hopefully help you make your own lidded forms with more ease.
Hereafter, I discuss the biscuit firing, waxing, glazing and reduction firing to cone ten and finally, and perhaps the most important step of the entire process, the lids are carefully pried off, as the wadding mixture I use can get rather stuck in place when heavily reduced, so the lids are tapped off with a hunk of wood, the waddings are then removed, and finally the lids are ground in place using greasy Chemico valve lapping paste—all before washing the stuff off with hot soapy water.
There’s a lot to these vessels, despite their minimal appearance and I’m already eager to make a second batch soon, as I always figure out so many subtleties that could be improved upon…
Thanks for watching!
#pottery #jar #handmade #clay #maker #ceramics #reductionfired
