Beginning Ceramics A
Pinch Tea Bowl
Directions:
A tea bowl is a shallow bowl without a handle
that can comfortably be held in the palms of your
hands. They are normally small, three to four inches high. They may be
straight-sided, flared at the top, or even
slightly irregular.
1. Wedge the clay by kneading it on the table with your palms. Shape it
into a ball.
2. Place the ball into the palm of your
hand, and use the thumb of your dominant hand to poke a hole in
the middle, leaving at least 1/4 inch of clay at the bottom.
3. Keep the thumb and fingers of the
dominant hand on the outside of the bowl to keep the walls’
thickness even. Keep turning the bowl in your opposite hand, using the fingers
and palm of your
dominant hand to maintain the shape. Use the thumb to pull clay toward the top
of the bowl. Try
to keep the sides almost vertical, since clay tends to flare out at the top.
Avoid making the walls
too thin or the clay will sag.
4. When you are satisfied with the
shape, dry the bowl to harden it enough to support its own weight,
and turn it over to apply the foot to the bottom.
5. Make the foot on the bottom of the
bowl by rolling out a piece of clay into a coil. Score the bottom
of the
bowl where the foot will be applied and score the coil of clay. Use slip (mushy
clay) to attach
the
foot to the bowl. Use your finger or a wooden modeling tool to attach the foot
to the base of your
bowl.
6. Draw a design on the outside of your
bowl. You will use a pin tool to do your drawing. The little
pieces
of clay that are left in your design will fall off as your project dries.
7. When the bowl is leather hard
(usually a day or two later), it may be burnished with the back of a
spoon, a polishing stone or scraped with a metal scraper. It is not necessary
to smooth the bowl all
over. Reinforce the rim by supporting the side and outside of the bowl while
you smooth it. If the
rim is terribly uneven, carefully sand it down with a small piece of sandpaper.