How to Make Pottery welcomes you. Cindy Clarke is a master potter with over 50 years of experience on the potter's wheel and hand building with clay. She and her husband Jim Willett, who has over 30 years of clay and pottery experience, operate Out of the Fire Studio® and want to share some of their knowledge with others through this channel. We worked in schools every year until December of 2013 with over 8000 school children annually making hand-built projects as The Clay Teacher®. We are now semi-retired in Coutts Alberta Canada and continuing to make pottery and videos at a slower rate.
Greetings from Puerto Rico! Do you sell this rib? How can I get one? Also, just want to say that Cindy is such an excellent teacher! I watch her videos every morning with my coffee to get inspired! Thank you!!
I have to get a pugmill they're so damn expensive I haven't found any for less than $3,000 actually I saw one on Craigslist for 2300 I should have bought it but I didn't bad MI
WOW! I love how detailed she is when explaining step-by-step... She's really good at it!... She doesn't skip a step, nor assumes people already know a particular detail, which makes it very easy to learn with her! 💜
Light Burner thanks! Cindy has been at it for “ a number of years” and has taught for most of those. Always happy to hear from someone who likes it! Still going strong in Southern Alberta, well she is, I’m semi retired...or tired...I get them confused...thanks for the comments.
I was a potter in my twenties. I loved it. Just had to watch this video. It's so tactile and centering. I used a kick wheel but always wanted to try an electric wheel.
WOW! I just started pottery three weeks ago and even feel inadequate pulling a small cereal bowl. I’m filling my brains with pottery videos from week to week. This platter is magnificent and with what ease and assuredness you are creating it, is amazing. I truly have a goal now. Thanks for the tutorial.
It is cone six stoneware. A blend of two clays from Plainsman Clays, F-96 and M390. Due to a lack of demand Plainsman is discontinuing the F-96 so we are trying a couple of replacements. Stay tuned for the clay saga! As soon as we get it figured out Cindy will blog about it I'm sure. We fire to time and temperature, not cone, and specific to our clay and glazes learned through experience...
Jim Willett. Thanks Jim... I'm a novice over here in Ireland, am using a grogged white stoneware but the grog is getting on my nerves! If you're not quick enough in throwing then you end up with a rough surface. But if I use an ungrogged clay, which is lovely and plastic, I the shrinkage is too much... ho hum... there really isn't much choice over here, unless you want to spend alot of money . Love the teaching videos.. thanks a million for your reply :-)
Oh OK. I'll explain the two clays. M390 is what we call a cream cheese clay. Absolutely no tooth but perfect for beginners to throw small pieces. F-96 was a very plasticy toothy clay. By blending the two we were able to tailor the percentage of grog to a manageable level and have a clay that did everything Cindy could throw. We think we have found a suitable new body but just getting ready to fire a few pieces and glaze them to make sure our glazes still fit.
Jim Willett Ahh ok... mix n match :-) I have some clay which I think would be like your cream cheese... I'll mix it the other stoneware I have and see how I go.. Thanks Jim... good luck with your new clay! :-)
Stephen Furlong sounds exactly like what you should do. As long as both your Clay's Fire to roughly the same temperature you should be OK. Bonus points at the end of it all, if you find a mix that works for you your work will have its own special appearance as your mix will be unique. It never hurts to experiment. We're not performing brain surgery. If it doesn't work figure out why and try something different! All the best!
As I said, consignment can be a win, win for both you and the store. It's a good idea to have a contract starting out. Make sure you have it writing that you own your work until sold. Percentages should be clearly stated and they will want you to leave your work in the store for..... a while.... Give it a chance, a couple months or so. Also have in writing how often you get paid. The end of the month is standard. But all that being said, after you have had your work in a store for a while, more often than not, it is a professional friendship of trust and working together. I have never been burned selling consignment and my best paying outlet is consignment. Good luck with it and thanks for watching.
Hi Steve. Cindy designed the rib a number of years ago. We are in the process of putting together a video about using the rib and a template and design notes on our website so you can make or get made your own. We sold them for a number of years but have no wood worker in our area and the cost of shipping them adds a bunch to the cost. We should have the video up by the 21st of November 2016
I really enjoyed this set of videos. I have struggled with making sets of same size and your approach is simple should help a lot. So I guess I need to go make 2 calipers and a big rib. Hmmm that would total to THREE hand made tools. 😁
I am 80 in a few days and after 9 yrs. at the wheel, still a beginner. Intermediate student. Learned most on RU-vid. 2 semesters at a comm. collage 9 yrs ago. Thanks for teaching me more. I have had some of my work in a gallery when we lived in Arizona.
