Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here’s the bronze imbedded vase from a few days ago, thrown from a lump of clay flooded with fragments of metal. I wish you feel the sensation of trimming this through a video, the tool’s blade bounces constantly as I work, colliding with the hard shards and trying it’s best to chatter on the surface, thus the trimming is slow and careful and controlled with a tremendous amount of back and forth.
When there is a particularly scratchy surface, I find the best way to fix it, is by sponging over the surface with a soaked dense sponge and then compressing over this with a plastic kidney, as it has a smoother edge. I’ve sort of fallen in love with these Mudtools sponges, especially the dense ones, as they barely leave any texture when run over the clay and thus simply soak it, which makes things like burnishing easier, but it can also help to leave a neater surface post trimming, as long as it isn’t done excessively so.
What I mean by that, is that when working with a grogged clay body, if you sponge at the surface for too long, you’ll erode the top layer of clay and expose all the tiny sharp fragments of grog, (and bronze in this case), leaving you with a rough surface. It’s for this reason that I don’t typically sponge down my work post trimming, (when they’re off the wheel), but a quick once over like this can-do wonders to knit together the surface and to create a neater form.
#pottery #vase #craftsmanship #trimming #ceramics
Here’s the bronze imbedded vase from a few days ago, thrown from a lump of clay flooded with fragments of metal. I wish you feel the sensation of trimming this through a video, the tool’s blade bounces constantly as I work, colliding with the hard shards and trying it’s best to chatter on the surface, thus the trimming is slow and careful and controlled with a tremendous amount of back and forth.
When there is a particularly scratchy surface, I find the best way to fix it, is by sponging over the surface with a soaked dense sponge and then compressing over this with a plastic kidney, as it has a smoother edge. I’ve sort of fallen in love with these Mudtools sponges, especially the dense ones, as they barely leave any texture when run over the clay and thus simply soak it, which makes things like burnishing easier, but it can also help to leave a neater surface post trimming, as long as it isn’t done excessively so.
What I mean by that, is that when working with a grogged clay body, if you sponge at the surface for too long, you’ll erode the top layer of clay and expose all the tiny sharp fragments of grog, (and bronze in this case), leaving you with a rough surface. It’s for this reason that I don’t typically sponge down my work post trimming, (when they’re off the wheel), but a quick once over like this can-do wonders to knit together the surface and to create a neater form.
#pottery #vase #craftsmanship #trimming #ceramics
