Figuring out how to make relief-carved pots has been an exercise in setting up parameters for myself. Drawing is a big part of the process, but I don’t have any formal drawing training (aside from a lifetime of prolific doodling). Rather than overwhelming myself with options, I have settled on using an X-Acto knife as my main mark-making tool here. I choose patterns and scale the design to suit the X-Acto knife, which lets me relax into the process and get into the rhythm of carving the pattern. Keeping the lines fresh and energetic is more important to me than precision. I’m always looking to texture in other craft forms (weaving, basketry) or in the natural world for references.
I like that the tiles and candlesticks contain a graphic quality embedded into the form rather than floating on the surface and I love to incorporate decorative elements at the leather-hard stage. I glaze these pots simply by selecting a glaze that responds well to texture. Sometimes I brush on a stain to highlight the edges and add depth. For a completely different result, inlaying glazes in the negative space of the carving and leaving bare clay on the uncarved surfaces makes a bold contrasting pattern.
Carving a Relief Tile
These flat forms are the simplest and easiest to carve. They can be used as a soap dish or spoon rest or incorporated into a tile floor or wall. I don’t have a slab roller, so I make a series of small rectangular slabs from a hunk of wedged clay. Start by roughing out a squarish form. Gently turn and drop the clay evenly, rotating it so each side is dropped onto the worktable. Repeat this until you have an even rectangular block about 4 × 3½ inches (10.2 × 8.9 cm).
To cut slabs from the rectangular chunk, I use a homemade wire tool (1). To make a similar tool, score a line about a ½ inch (1.3 cm) from the ends of two dowels. Where you make the score marks, determines how thick your slabs will be. Attach a 12-inch (30.5-cm) piece of cutting wire by twisting it on with pliers around the scored marks.
To make a cut, rest the ends of the dowels on the surface of the worktable, hold the wire taught, and drag it through the clay block. Gently lift the clay block off the newly cut slab and move it over to another spot on the worktable, repeating the process until you have several even slabs (2). Any slab-making method is fine here, but I like the casual nature of the edges of the tiles made like this. Don’t touch the fresh slabs, but leave them where they are cut until they firm up to leather hard. Once leather hard, the tiles can be handled more freely.
Next, clean up the edges by tapping them on the surface of a worktable and use an X-Acto knife to slice a small bevel along the underside edge (3). This isn’t necessary if you’re making a tile that will be incorporated into a floor or wall project, but for a tile that will be used as a soap dish or a spoon rest, it adds a little shadow or a nice lift underneath that I like to see.
Plan the pattern or image you’re interested in carving. It’s best for me to set up guardrails when I’m approaching anything drawing-related, which is why I often like making a grid to help with scale and proportion. Keep it simple to start, with mostly straight or gently curving lines, as those are the easiest to cut. Making some sketches on paper can be helpful. I like to repeat a motif, such as this leaf-like shape.
Lightly trace a grid onto the slab with the X-Acto knife. I’m not terribly fussy about this being perfectly square or consistent, so I eyeball the spacing—these are handmade, after all! A ruler can help if you want more precision. Lightly trace the pattern you want to carve within each square of the grid with the X-Acto knife. When drawing a pattern, it’s helpful to go through and repeat the first few lines of the motif in each square of the grid, so that they are in the right orientation and similar in proportion (4).
Start carving, making clear, deliberate cuts, angled down and toward the center of the negative space of the pattern (5). The goal is to free a piece of clay within the shape of your pattern in as few strokes as possible, all of them connecting at the bottom of the center of the negative space. You should be able to remove the cut pieces of clay using the tip of the X-Acto knife (6). I try not to fuss or soften the edges too much here, preserving the freshness of the marks made by the knife. It’s important to be working with leather-hard clay here. If the clay is too soft, your cuts will end up looking mushy. Work your way around the patterns by using a banding wheel to keep the cuts angled consistently (7).
Dry your tiles slowly. If it’s humid you can leave them out, but letting them sit under a sheet of plastic is good during winter or in arid climates.
I would recommend using a glaze that breaks on rims or responds well to texture. Alternately, use a trailing bulb to fill in the negative space you carved with glaze, wiping away any drips or extras with a wet sponge to leave the pattern exposed in bare clay.
Carving a Relief Candlestick
I start with a 1–1½ pound (16–24 ounce) ball of clay to throw a simple, straight-sided candlestick form with a flared foot (8). Allow the shape to stiffen to a leather-hard consistency—soft enough to still carve but stiff enough to hold it’s shape.
Once leather hard, clean up the edge of the foot and use a loop tool to carve out a chunk of clay from the middle of the underside so the resulting pot isn’t too thick or heavy (9). I like to do this by holding the candlestick in one hand and gently twisting the loop tool where I want to remove clay in a confident motion, which might take a little practice.
Plan how you want to carve the candlestick. Again, straight or gently curved lines are the easiest to cut. Rather than breaking this pot down into a grid of repeating motifs, I think of the candlesticks as a stack of shapes and try to consider how to compose the stack in a way that interests me.
I always begin by defining the top of the candlestick. Using your X-Acto knife and a banding wheel, gently turn the pot and cut away V-shaped pieces of clay along the rim (10). Continue to define the part of the candlestick that will hold the candle by making two parallel, horizontal cuts (11), angling the cuts toward each other, and removing the resulting small band of clay (12). Be careful not to cut too deep as you could cut the candlestick in half.
Gently sketch out the rest of your plan with the tip of your knife (13). Cut out wedges of negative space to reveal the shapes you want, as with the tiles. I use the lines on my banding wheel and make little marks on the clay as I’m planning the design to make the spacing somewhat consistent. On the candlesticks, I like to go back with a tiny loop tool or a sgraffito tool and add lines for texture (14). If there are any crumbs of clay left after making your marks with the loop tool, wait until the pot is bone dry to brush them away. The band of lines on the upper side of this candlestick reminds me of an Elizabethan collar.
Like the tiles, these are fun to glaze in something that will highlight the textures and patterns, but I don’t think the inlay strategy will work as well on this vertical, more complex form. Once fired and in use, you can clean the melted wax out of the relief carved candlestick by soaking it in hot water. This will soften the wax and make it easier to pry off the pot, though layers of melted wax could be a beautiful feature of this pot too!
Alana Cuellar is a Venezuelan-American potter living in Wisconsin. To her, handmade objects contain quiet magic that cultivates pleasure and joy. The pots she makes are intended for use in everyday life.
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Figuring out how to make relief-carved pots has been an exercise in setting up parameters for myself. Drawing is a big part of the process, but I don’t have any formal drawing training (aside from a lifetime of prolific doodling). Rather than overwhelming myself with options, I have settled on using an X-Acto knife as my main mark-making tool here. I choose patterns and scale the design to suit the X-Acto knife, which lets me relax into the process and get into the rhythm of carving the pattern. Keeping the lines fresh and energetic is more important to me than precision. I’m always looking to texture in other craft forms (weaving, basketry) or in the natural world for references.
I like that the tiles and candlesticks contain a graphic quality embedded into the form rather than floating on the surface and I love to incorporate decorative elements at the leather-hard stage. I glaze these pots simply by selecting a glaze that responds well to texture. Sometimes I brush on a stain to highlight the edges and add depth. For a completely different result, inlaying glazes in the negative space of the carving and leaving bare clay on the uncarved surfaces makes a bold contrasting pattern.
Carving a Relief Tile
These flat forms are the simplest and easiest to carve. They can be used as a soap dish or spoon rest or incorporated into a tile floor or wall. I don’t have a slab roller, so I make a series of small rectangular slabs from a hunk of wedged clay. Start by roughing out a squarish form. Gently turn and drop the clay evenly, rotating it so each side is dropped onto the worktable. Repeat this until you have an even rectangular block about 4 × 3½ inches (10.2 × 8.9 cm).
To cut slabs from the rectangular chunk, I use a homemade wire tool (1). To make a similar tool, score a line about a ½ inch (1.3 cm) from the ends of two dowels. Where you make the score marks, determines how thick your slabs will be. Attach a 12-inch (30.5-cm) piece of cutting wire by twisting it on with pliers around the scored marks.
To make a cut, rest the ends of the dowels on the surface of the worktable, hold the wire taught, and drag it through the clay block. Gently lift the clay block off the newly cut slab and move it over to another spot on the worktable, repeating the process until you have several even slabs (2). Any slab-making method is fine here, but I like the casual nature of the edges of the tiles made like this. Don’t touch the fresh slabs, but leave them where they are cut until they firm up to leather hard. Once leather hard, the tiles can be handled more freely.
Next, clean up the edges by tapping them on the surface of a worktable and use an X-Acto knife to slice a small bevel along the underside edge (3). This isn’t necessary if you’re making a tile that will be incorporated into a floor or wall project, but for a tile that will be used as a soap dish or a spoon rest, it adds a little shadow or a nice lift underneath that I like to see.
Plan the pattern or image you’re interested in carving. It’s best for me to set up guardrails when I’m approaching anything drawing-related, which is why I often like making a grid to help with scale and proportion. Keep it simple to start, with mostly straight or gently curving lines, as those are the easiest to cut. Making some sketches on paper can be helpful. I like to repeat a motif, such as this leaf-like shape.
Lightly trace a grid onto the slab with the X-Acto knife. I’m not terribly fussy about this being perfectly square or consistent, so I eyeball the spacing—these are handmade, after all! A ruler can help if you want more precision. Lightly trace the pattern you want to carve within each square of the grid with the X-Acto knife. When drawing a pattern, it’s helpful to go through and repeat the first few lines of the motif in each square of the grid, so that they are in the right orientation and similar in proportion (4).
Start carving, making clear, deliberate cuts, angled down and toward the center of the negative space of the pattern (5). The goal is to free a piece of clay within the shape of your pattern in as few strokes as possible, all of them connecting at the bottom of the center of the negative space. You should be able to remove the cut pieces of clay using the tip of the X-Acto knife (6). I try not to fuss or soften the edges too much here, preserving the freshness of the marks made by the knife. It’s important to be working with leather-hard clay here. If the clay is too soft, your cuts will end up looking mushy. Work your way around the patterns by using a banding wheel to keep the cuts angled consistently (7).
Dry your tiles slowly. If it’s humid you can leave them out, but letting them sit under a sheet of plastic is good during winter or in arid climates.
I would recommend using a glaze that breaks on rims or responds well to texture. Alternately, use a trailing bulb to fill in the negative space you carved with glaze, wiping away any drips or extras with a wet sponge to leave the pattern exposed in bare clay.
Carving a Relief Candlestick
I start with a 1–1½ pound (16–24 ounce) ball of clay to throw a simple, straight-sided candlestick form with a flared foot (8). Allow the shape to stiffen to a leather-hard consistency—soft enough to still carve but stiff enough to hold it’s shape.
Once leather hard, clean up the edge of the foot and use a loop tool to carve out a chunk of clay from the middle of the underside so the resulting pot isn’t too thick or heavy (9). I like to do this by holding the candlestick in one hand and gently twisting the loop tool where I want to remove clay in a confident motion, which might take a little practice.
Plan how you want to carve the candlestick. Again, straight or gently curved lines are the easiest to cut. Rather than breaking this pot down into a grid of repeating motifs, I think of the candlesticks as a stack of shapes and try to consider how to compose the stack in a way that interests me.
I always begin by defining the top of the candlestick. Using your X-Acto knife and a banding wheel, gently turn the pot and cut away V-shaped pieces of clay along the rim (10). Continue to define the part of the candlestick that will hold the candle by making two parallel, horizontal cuts (11), angling the cuts toward each other, and removing the resulting small band of clay (12). Be careful not to cut too deep as you could cut the candlestick in half.
Gently sketch out the rest of your plan with the tip of your knife (13). Cut out wedges of negative space to reveal the shapes you want, as with the tiles. I use the lines on my banding wheel and make little marks on the clay as I’m planning the design to make the spacing somewhat consistent. On the candlesticks, I like to go back with a tiny loop tool or a sgraffito tool and add lines for texture (14). If there are any crumbs of clay left after making your marks with the loop tool, wait until the pot is bone dry to brush them away. The band of lines on the upper side of this candlestick reminds me of an Elizabethan collar.
Like the tiles, these are fun to glaze in something that will highlight the textures and patterns, but I don’t think the inlay strategy will work as well on this vertical, more complex form. Once fired and in use, you can clean the melted wax out of the relief carved candlestick by soaking it in hot water. This will soften the wax and make it easier to pry off the pot, though layers of melted wax could be a beautiful feature of this pot too!
Alana Cuellar is a Venezuelan-American potter living in Wisconsin. To her, handmade objects contain quiet magic that cultivates pleasure and joy. The pots she makes are intended for use in everyday life.
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