Want to learn more about Lindsay's tools and processes? Sign up for her Workshop from Home webinar on July 16, 2025 at 11am EDT! Register here.
Often, it’s the little things that change the trajectory of your creative life. During my junior year at Alfred University, my mentor John Gill helped me secure an internship at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado. This opened my eyes to the broader ceramics community. I sat in on every demo, lecture, and field trip that I could, and toward the end of that summer, I walked into Michael Wisner’s demo where he impressed the skin of the clay with a geometric pattern. I had never seen anything like it. He invited me to join them in the tool-making portion of the workshop later that day. I didn’t have the skill set to make my own tools, it hadn’t even crossed my mind to try. Those demos propelled me down a path that still continues to inspire and challenge me.
I took the tools I made with Michael and compared them to what I had in my toolbox. I started using what I found to make similar marks in clay. Over time, I created my own tools from bisque-fired clay and wooden ribs. Very quickly I translated the information I learned in the workshop into something uniquely mine. I sat with this for a few years, until I arrived at The Ohio State University for graduate school, where my mentors Rebecca Harvey and Steven Thurston quickly pushed me to use the laser cutter to design my own tools inspired by Victorian fretwork and stone tracery, and scaled to the needs of each piece. I’ve carried all these tools with me over the years and pull them out every time I teach a class or workshop to show students how you can take inspiration from an artist’s work and, through research, risk, and exploration, make it uniquely yours.
Establishing Your Tool
Whether using a found object, grinding down hacksaw blades, cutting out your own shapes from clay and bisque firing them, or laser cutting your own tools from pressboard, you need a hard edge to make a crisp impression (1). Start by looking for found objects where the shape and edge appeal to you. Roll out a clay slab and press the objects into the skin of the clay. After viewing the results, determine what you like, and then push those ideas further with customization (2).
I use ¼-thick Masonite in my Glowforge laser cutter. This material and thickness give me enough of an edge to establish the depth of pattern that I’m looking to achieve on my clay surfaces (2).
1 A collection of my mark-making tools. Look around and consider what might make an interesting mark in the clay.2 Consider the variations possible with the tools by changing their orientation.
Handmade stamps are also a wonderful option. Start with a ¾-inch slab, cut it into your desired shape, but don’t overwork the sharp edge. Bisque fire the dried piece to create a reusable stamping tool.
Stamping in the Round
First, throw or handbuild a form to stamp on. I am working on a tapered cup shape. I’m using Standard 365 cone-6 porcelain, but this process can be done on any clay from stoneware to high-grog brick clay, depending on your preference. I throw about ¼-inch (0.6-cm)-thick pieces and hand build with ⅜-inch (1-cm) clay slabs. When I first started laser cutting my tools, I was really only interested in the negative tool shape and tossed the positive in a box to throw out. Quickly, I discovered that the layering of patterns I was trying to create needed both shapes to achieve the effect I was looking for. The negative shape holds the details, cutouts, and recesses into the skin of the clay. The positive creates the outline edge to the clay you push through. This can appear as if it was added to the surface. Not all shapes come together to create an attractive repeating pattern, this takes some trial and error to get the scale of the tool adjusted to create a pleasing pattern (3).
Consider where you’d like the pattern to fall on your piece and how many rows you have room for. Establish a guideline about an inch from the rim (4). You don’t want to stamp right on the rim because you risk a hairline crack or pushing the piece too far out of round.
3 Practice impressing your tools into the clay to work out various patterns.4 Lightly draw a guide line around your piece so your pattern plots level.
I like to stamp when the clay is just at the leather-hard stage. Meaning when you touch the surface of the clay you don’t leave any fingerprints. Starting with the positive tool (or the tool that leaves a positive impression), line up the tips of the tool to your guideline while holding the pot in your lap for support. With your other hand lobster-clawed around the rim, push with your thumb from the outside while giving pressure with your second finger. Apply this pressure all around the shape of the tool (5). Depending on the shape, that could be one press for a simple scallop or multiple presses for a more detailed design (6).
Next, take the negative tool around the pot (7). Again, using your thumb to help give pressure where it’s required. If you have any fancy cutouts in this tool, you will need to specifically push in those locations with your thumb and second finger (8). The more pressure around the edges, the deeper the impression, and the more pressure in those cutouts, the larger the reveal (9). Too much pressure will take you right through the pot. There is an interior impression created from this process that I find to be really beautiful.
5 Place a positive tool on the guide line. Support the interior and apply pressure.6 Press along the edges of the tool until the desired impression is achieved.
7 Next, place a negative tool in the space between the first layer of scallops.8 Press along the edge and in the cut outs, then repeat the pattern.
9 Using your thumb and index finger at the edge of each scallop, press out with your interior hand’s index finger to add volume.Use slip-trailed dots and glaze colors to further accentuate the pattern.
Final Thoughts
I understand this all can be overwhelming to figure out. That’s why I started selling a simple set of tools that I offer to my workshop students so they would have something to take home to begin their journey. However you begin your stamping exploration, the most important thing is that you start!
Lindsay Scypta's Plates made from ⅜-inch slabs on GR Pottery’s WA system.
Lindsay Scypta's Stack of ice cream bowls. If the pattern doesn’t meet perfectly, embellish that space with a sprig. It’s a simple reminder that our imperfections can be just as successful and interesting, while presenting opportunities for play.
Process and finished work photos: CI Photo & Design.
Lindsay Scypta is an artist and educator living in Toledo, Ohio. She teaches academic and community courses at Owens Community College in the evenings and raises her three young children by day. She holds a BFA from Alfred University and an MFA from The Ohio State University. Learn more at www.lindsayscypta.com.
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Want to learn more about Lindsay's tools and processes? Sign up for her Workshop from Home webinar on July 16, 2025 at 11am EDT! Register here.
Often, it’s the little things that change the trajectory of your creative life. During my junior year at Alfred University, my mentor John Gill helped me secure an internship at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado. This opened my eyes to the broader ceramics community. I sat in on every demo, lecture, and field trip that I could, and toward the end of that summer, I walked into Michael Wisner’s demo where he impressed the skin of the clay with a geometric pattern. I had never seen anything like it. He invited me to join them in the tool-making portion of the workshop later that day. I didn’t have the skill set to make my own tools, it hadn’t even crossed my mind to try. Those demos propelled me down a path that still continues to inspire and challenge me.
I took the tools I made with Michael and compared them to what I had in my toolbox. I started using what I found to make similar marks in clay. Over time, I created my own tools from bisque-fired clay and wooden ribs. Very quickly I translated the information I learned in the workshop into something uniquely mine. I sat with this for a few years, until I arrived at The Ohio State University for graduate school, where my mentors Rebecca Harvey and Steven Thurston quickly pushed me to use the laser cutter to design my own tools inspired by Victorian fretwork and stone tracery, and scaled to the needs of each piece. I’ve carried all these tools with me over the years and pull them out every time I teach a class or workshop to show students how you can take inspiration from an artist’s work and, through research, risk, and exploration, make it uniquely yours.
Establishing Your Tool
Whether using a found object, grinding down hacksaw blades, cutting out your own shapes from clay and bisque firing them, or laser cutting your own tools from pressboard, you need a hard edge to make a crisp impression (1). Start by looking for found objects where the shape and edge appeal to you. Roll out a clay slab and press the objects into the skin of the clay. After viewing the results, determine what you like, and then push those ideas further with customization (2).
I use ¼-thick Masonite in my Glowforge laser cutter. This material and thickness give me enough of an edge to establish the depth of pattern that I’m looking to achieve on my clay surfaces (2).
Handmade stamps are also a wonderful option. Start with a ¾-inch slab, cut it into your desired shape, but don’t overwork the sharp edge. Bisque fire the dried piece to create a reusable stamping tool.
Stamping in the Round
First, throw or handbuild a form to stamp on. I am working on a tapered cup shape. I’m using Standard 365 cone-6 porcelain, but this process can be done on any clay from stoneware to high-grog brick clay, depending on your preference. I throw about ¼-inch (0.6-cm)-thick pieces and hand build with ⅜-inch (1-cm) clay slabs. When I first started laser cutting my tools, I was really only interested in the negative tool shape and tossed the positive in a box to throw out. Quickly, I discovered that the layering of patterns I was trying to create needed both shapes to achieve the effect I was looking for. The negative shape holds the details, cutouts, and recesses into the skin of the clay. The positive creates the outline edge to the clay you push through. This can appear as if it was added to the surface. Not all shapes come together to create an attractive repeating pattern, this takes some trial and error to get the scale of the tool adjusted to create a pleasing pattern (3).
Consider where you’d like the pattern to fall on your piece and how many rows you have room for. Establish a guideline about an inch from the rim (4). You don’t want to stamp right on the rim because you risk a hairline crack or pushing the piece too far out of round.
I like to stamp when the clay is just at the leather-hard stage. Meaning when you touch the surface of the clay you don’t leave any fingerprints. Starting with the positive tool (or the tool that leaves a positive impression), line up the tips of the tool to your guideline while holding the pot in your lap for support. With your other hand lobster-clawed around the rim, push with your thumb from the outside while giving pressure with your second finger. Apply this pressure all around the shape of the tool (5). Depending on the shape, that could be one press for a simple scallop or multiple presses for a more detailed design (6).
Next, take the negative tool around the pot (7). Again, using your thumb to help give pressure where it’s required. If you have any fancy cutouts in this tool, you will need to specifically push in those locations with your thumb and second finger (8). The more pressure around the edges, the deeper the impression, and the more pressure in those cutouts, the larger the reveal (9). Too much pressure will take you right through the pot. There is an interior impression created from this process that I find to be really beautiful.
Final Thoughts
I understand this all can be overwhelming to figure out. That’s why I started selling a simple set of tools that I offer to my workshop students so they would have something to take home to begin their journey. However you begin your stamping exploration, the most important thing is that you start!
Process and finished work photos: CI Photo & Design.
Lindsay Scypta is an artist and educator living in Toledo, Ohio. She teaches academic and community courses at Owens Community College in the evenings and raises her three young children by day. She holds a BFA from Alfred University and an MFA from The Ohio State University. Learn more at www.lindsayscypta.com.
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