When you look at a piece of hand-made pottery it can be hard to understand just how much love and attention has gone into making that one piece.

My students often hear me say, “there’s a month in every pot”. There is a very detailed process on how we achieve your perfect piece. Fiona helps with each stage of the process in easy steps!

From selecting the best clay for that one piece, to the wedging and kneading that it takes to prepare your clay for wheel throwing to the actual process of wheel throwing itself (which takes many years to perfect) requires a finely tuned skill set.

Even after the piece is formed or “thrown” on the wheel head it must be carefully partially dried and “turned or trimmed” to finish the bottom of the piece so it is both functionally and aesthetically pleasing. The pottery is then dried slowly so as it is bone dry before going into the kiln.

After the work is dried thoroughly before being fired for the first time (it is called the bisque fire), where the water is driven out of the piece (chemically bound water, even if you can’t see or feel it, it’s still there) some changes occur in the clay body at very high temperatures which transform the clay into “ceramic”.

If we do not take great care at this stage we can have problems with the unwanted generation of steam, which can cause cracking and occasionally unwanted explosions in the kiln.

This first firing allows the work to be more robust so as we can go about the final stages of glazing and re-firing the work to a higher temperature to actually finish the piece so it’s ready for use.

The bisque fired clay is still nice and porous enabling the surface to drink up the glazes so that they adhere to the lining of the pottery so they can be fired again and form a thin layer of melted glass onto the surface. This final firing ensures that the pottery piece is “vitrified” or water tight, so it reaches a stage of hardness and maturity that prolongs its shelf life and renders it useable for every-day use.

The selection of glazes to suit the pottery piece is quite a process in itself.

There are many considerations to make such as:

• the clay used
• firing range temperatures
• whether or not the piece is of a sculptural nature or to be used with food
• colour/texture/composition
• application techniques for desired effects and more

At Naturemuse Ceramic Studio all glazes are made from scratch using ground up rock and minerals derived from the earth, mixed up in specific batches that are weighed out to create glaze formulas that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional and appropriate for use with each ceramic piece.