What Is A Pinch Pot In Ceramics

Purchase a food safe professional varnish and apply four to five coats to the surface of the pot.

What is a pinch pot in ceramics.

This video shows how to make a basic pinch pot out of clay. Stay tuned for the next video which shows how to add pieces to the pinch pot to make a creature. Air dry clay can be decorated with latex and acrylic paints. Pinch pots have been produced for centuries and they are among the easiest types of pottery to create.

The pinch pot technique is often the first thing taught to beginning potters because it is a good way to get familiar with the properties of clay. A pinch pot is a type of hand formed pot. Due to the technique s limitations most pinch pots are fairly small holding perhaps one cup to one and a half cups by volume. Her exasperation resonated earlier this summer as my umpteenth introduction to pinch pots drew near.

Most pinched pottery is less than 6 inches in diameter but it can be larger. I overheard a woman complaining to her friend about a teacher who requires everyone to make a pinch pot on the first day of class. But that doesn t mean you can t make sophisticated forms with the technique. You can actually learn more about the world of pottery and get beautiful art ideas once you start on your pinch pot journey.

Here emily schroeder willis shows how to make a beautiful pitcher with the pinch pot technique. Decorate an air dried pinch pot. Simple clay vessels such as bowls and cups of various sizes can be formed and shaped by hand using a methodical pinching process in which the clay walls are thinned by pinching. For this reason archaeologists suspect that pinch pots are probably one of the oldest forms of pottery and ample evidence at historical sites supports this theory.

If you re not sure if working with clay is for you then starting with a pinch pot is a perfect economic test run. A more recently made better version of this video can be found here in this playlist. Pinch pot vessels can be decorated in many ways but there does seem to be an added affinity between pinch pots and burnishing a method that brings a gloss to unglazed pieces. However you can make larger pinch pots if you really put your mind to it.

If you re planning on using your pinch pot to store or serve dried foods you will need to varnish the surface of the clay. My aversion to pinch pots began a couple of years ago at a communal ceramics studio in manhattan. When you make clay pinch pots a simple project for kids you can make an effort to find many ways to decorate them and embellish them.