Creating a piece of art with natural clays is a very therapeutic activity. In this blog post, I will introduce you to the world of naturals clays like terracotta, stoneware, porcelain, WED, etc. As mentioned earlier; this blog series is meant to help those who are absolute beginners in creating art with a sculpting material. Rather than wonder what material to use, you can go through this series and try the mediums that you think might help you express yourself creatively. I have a list of sculpting mediums that I am going to talk over time. For that list you can click here! That page will be updated with all the relevant blog posts that will follow!
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s dive in!
NATURAL CLAYS
Natural clays like terracotta, stoneware, porcelain, etc., all have water in them. These clays have different colours depending on where they are mined. Terracotta is know for having that nice orange brown colour once fired. But the colour would be different between countries because the minerals aren’t in the same proportions everywhere. This is the most common natural clay used in pottery.
Porcelain is one of the toughest natural clays to sculpt with as it is very soft and smooth. Terracotta and stoneware (or WED clay) are easier. When you get the clay from a store, they are ideal good for throwing on a wheel, i.e., pottery. They have a lot of water content. For sculpture, the additional water adds to weight and it will droop. It’s also difficult to sculpt with a very sticky clay.
To sculpt, cut up your clay into large chucks and let them dry a little over a piece of sack cloth or canvas or even wood. They will absorb some of the water! For larger sculptures I have mixed in rice husk, shredded paper or even grog in my clay to make the final sculpture lighter. These will burn up in the firing. Because of these fillers, you will find it difficult to smooth own the surface. You will have to use some of the unmixed clay to cover up the rough surfaces.
TOOLS
There are no specific sculpture tools and pottery tools. I have used pottery tools in my work quite often. It all depends on what you would like to do, for example, for laying a flat portion of clay you can use a wooden spatula (even a kitchen spatula). Another way to get a flat area is to hold a string at both ends and pull it through the clay. Just like slicing cheese!
Most of the tools available for sculpture are wooden. You may use plastic or metal tools too. If you choose a wooden tool, it becomes easier for you to buy and reshape it when the need arises. Customizing a plastic or metal tool is difficult.
For laying up clay you can use flat or shaped spatulas. At the initial stage, your hands are a better option. Your fingers are good to start adding details and parts. You may need a tool to refine things or to use in places where it is difficult with your fingers.
To remove clay, there are loop tools and ribbon tools. You may be able to make some simple ones on your own! Just add some sturdy wire to the end of a small wooden stick or a piece of pipe. Fix it in place with nails or epoxy glue. Ribbon tools are hard to make. There are plain and serrated ones. The serrated ribbon tools are used in roughing out forms and the plain ones to smooth out the surface later.
Other things that you might need are a pair of calipers, a ruler, a mug to hold some water, a sponge and a piece of cloth. The sponge and the cloth can be used to texture the sculpted clay.
ARMATURE
Sculpting with these clays are fairly easy unless you are making large structures. For large ones some kind of support armature would be required. A portrait bust of 12 inches would need only a board with an 8 or 10 inch wooden pole or metal pipe fixed in the middle of the board. Plan ahead on how your sculpture is going to stand or be mounted.
“An armature is ideally supposed to go right through the middle of your sculpture. If the hands and fingers are going to stick out of the main sculpture, then it would need a supporting armature.”
Another method of supporting your clay is to bunch up hay or straw or paper. You can choose all three and tie them up together. When doing something like this, avoid tying them too tightly. They should be able to be squeezed in. This helps prevent cracks. We will talk about this in the hollowing out section.
BLOCKING STAGE
For this stage, it is better to have enough reference images. You will be pressing clay on to your armature as tightly as you can. The aim is to build the rough form of your sculpture without any details. Keep working on all the areas of your sculpture, remember that this is a 3d sculpture! Keep checking the silhouette of the sculpture and see if it matches the references from different angles. This is the fastest stage of work!
ADDING DETAILS AND FINISHING
Once you are happy with the overall form and silhouette of the sculpture, cover up the sculpture in plastic sheets or garbage bags. You are going to take time and focus on certain areas. The other areas will start drying in the meantime. Once that happens you will find that adding clay is difficult and in some cases, cracks would start to show up. Lightly sponge your sculpture with water or use a water sprayer before covering up. Open up only the area that you want to work on.
Mash up some clay in water to make a thick slurry/slip. This is the best glue to use when attaching pieces of fresh clay to your sculpture. Make a few scratch marks before adding the slurry/slip. It is better to score and use the glue every time you add a fresh piece of clay. This prevents cracks from forming and prevents attached pieces from falling off during the firing.
“Keep your clay and sculpture moist and covered in plastic”
This is the portion which takes the longest time. Take measurements often and step away from your work once in a while. Some sculptors have worked on the same clay sculpture for 3 years, making sure they regularly moisten the clay while working. As long as these clays are kept wet you can sculpt or reshape the sculpture indefinitely.
HOLLOWING OUT
Now your labour of love is sculpted. As the sculpture dries out, i.e., as the water evaporates, they will shrink by at least 20%. That’s a lot of volume going down! The clay will not naturally loose water uniformly. The exterior surface will lose water faster than the interior. This will lead to cracking. If you have a supporting armature like a piece of wood or a metal pipe, then there is an additional problem. They won’t shrink! If you leave your sculpture to dry with the armature in it, it will break off into chunks in just a few days.
Hollowing out your sculpture is the only way to keep it intact. The basic ideas is to cut open your sculpture and scoop out the clay in the middle leaving only a shell of a sculpture. This is the time for you to remove the supporting armature. If the thickness of your piece does not go beyond an inch, then you don’t need to hollow out that portion!
If you have used hay, straw or paper as an armature then you don’t need to hollow out! They will absorb water from the clay and shrink along with the clay.
To understand this you can refer to some youtube videos or you could join a class. Here are some of my students hollowing out their sculptures
Now you will need to wait for your sculpture to slowly dry out while being covered. Poke in a few holes in your plastic cover to let the water evaporate slowly. They shouldn’t be cold to the touch before firing. This can take weeks or months depending on the weather. Keep checking your sculpture and notice if there are cracks showing up.
FIRING
You can approach colleges, pottery studios or your local potter and ask if your sculpture can be fired. Some use gas kilns, electric kilns or wood fired kilns. If you got your clay from the local potter, then he can tell you what temperature is required, that is if you have your own kiln. You can get a lot of help from local potters groups. Some of them are on Facebook too!
Firing depends on the kind of clay that you are using. There are clays which can be fired at 850-950 degrees Celsius. Some need higher temperatures for a full firing over 2 days! Let your sculpture cool down as slowly as possible. Do not open the door of the furnace until the sculpture reaches close to room temperature. The temperature difference can make the sculpture crack!
If you would like to glaze your sculpture, there is a lower temperature firing that needs to be done first. This is called biscuit firing. Your sculpture will not be completely strong. It may have shrunk only by 2-4% so far. Once glazes are applied you will need to fire it at the prescribed temperature for that particular glaze. Contact the manufacturer of the glaze for the correct temperature and the firing plan.
After a full firing, your natural clay sculpture will become ceramic. It would have shrunk by around 20-30% of its original size! These kinds of sculptures are what you find in archaeological digs. They can easily last over 900 years!
Note:
If firing is not something that you would like to do, then you can mold and cast your piece into another material. For example, you can make a plaster mold of sculpture, remove your clay sculpture and pour cement into your plaster mold. You will have to make sure that you use some kind of mold release. A simple one can be a mix of any oil and dishwashing soap. That way you will be able to separate the cast from the mold. These kind of molds ideally can be used only once if the casted piece is in plaster of paris or cement. I’ll write an article about this someday with some pictures and video!
Here are some projects that I have done with natural clays:
When I consider my work, I feel that they are nothing compared to the experts out there. There are some great sculptors who work with natural clays. Do take a look at some of their awesome pieces of work. I’ve provided links to their social media pages so that you can take it all in and probably follow them too! Here are some:
Sumeyye Barlak (Vanilya Ceramics)
There are many more talented artists that I couldn’t include. The list is endless! Then there are the old masters of this craft! I hope that this blog serves as an introduction to the possibilities of natural clay as a sculpting medium.
The next blog post will cover Polymer Clays. As and when a new post is ready, it will be added here. That way you don’t have to miss anything! Enjoy the creative process!
If you would like to learn to sculpt or have a custom sculpture made for you, then please do reach out to me! Please do share this with others or on social media. It might help someone!
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