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Kneading the Clay part II
Cut & Slapping Kneading
In the Shigaraki area, Japan, ceramic production is mainly of big pieces. In old times, production consisted mainly in big cereal containers where no mice could access, at present a variety of items are manually made as garden furniture, water fountains and molded
sculptural work as the famous “tanuki” or badger, who, the legend says, goes every night around selling rice vine & happily drinking himself. Obviously, there is much need of kneading big quantities of clay, let us say, more 20 to 40 pounds, which would demand heavy corporal work.
Local potters have invented a way, unique, perhaps, to this area, of roughly mixing clay without much corporal effort which is locally called “kiri-momi” meaning “cut mixing” or freely translated: “cut & slapping kneading”
I shall try to explain myself:
First of all: soft clay is a must, hard clay will only hurt your hands.
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I learnt this method from Prof. Nishio from the Shigaraki Ceramics Training Institute, himself a specialist in the making of big pieces, he is seen at work in the photograph, left, (one of his vessels is seen in the back).
A piece of clay (you might like to practice with let us say, 15 to 20 pounds) is placed on a low working table (kneading tables in Japan are more o less 60 cm high) in such a way that it bulges out the border in front of the kneader, who with both thumbs & forefingers of his hands, used as knives, make a slanted cut down from the top to
the border, as to eliminate the bulging part.
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The piece obtained this way is slapped on top of the clay, and then, the whole amount is inclined toward the left, and turned toward the right so, another part bulges out of the border. This turning the clay is similar to the way a big drum can is made to turn when translating it from one place to another; it needs only a minimum of corporal strength.
Turning the clay, cutting and slapping the cut part on the top is alternatively repeated until the whole is evenly mixed.
Excellent for mixing more than 15 pounds of clay is not as effective for smaller quantities, so for them, methods have to be used.
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Celina would be pleased to try to answer any comments & questions
related with her blog text, and when not able to do so, she gladly
would go in quest for an answer among clay-people around
Copyright©Celina Clavijo Kashu2010 for Forum Artistico
Celina's Past Blogs:
Celina on Ceramics: "Kneading the Clay Part I"
Celina on ceramics:"Iron content in clays"
Celina on Ceramics: "Clay"
Celina On Ceramics
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That's wonderful Celina,
I'd actually love to see you do that!
So interesting!
It's amazing to me to be working with such a big piece with such a beautiful result.
Congratulations!