Celina’s blog “On ceramics”: Forming by pinching

I have dedicated a few articles to kneading because this is one of the most important preparative tasks before forming.

Once the clay has been kneaded, it is the right time to form it. In fact, the clay should be formed as soon as it is kneaded. This is because kneading has “warmed up” it, that is, the

clay reach its best plasticity moment and is ready to accept any form you might want to make. On the contrary, if after kneading it is let to stay, not only will develop a hard skin but also will become stiff and difficult to handle. Make it a habit to form it as soon it is kneaded!

Along thousands of years of using clay, man has invented a myriad of ways of forming it.

One of the first ones might have been pinching.

In your first contact with clay, I am quite sure you cannot subdue the impulse of trying to make a ball, then, to hollow it in the top.

Just follow the process: place a small ball of clay on the palm of the left hand: using the right thumb open the clay while you support the wall in the outside with the other fingers of your right hand, exert an even pressure to thin the walls until you make a bowl, as big as the quantity of clay allows it.

If you make it carefully so the pressure of your fingers is regular and you get a pot of even thickness: no more than 4 to 5 mm thick for a small bowl, you have made a pot worth of firing. Just take care that it is stable when you put it on the table. Stability is of paramount importance: an unstable pot is not only very difficult to use but, in the kiln, may collapse touching and damaging other pieces, or worst, may spoil the expensive furniture of the kiln.

Pinching is a time-honored method, also useful when practicing other techniques as molding and modeling, many ceramists like Mary Rogers (UK) use pinching as a validly method of forming and have made outstanding works with it.

Some artists use it in combination with other methods as Finland ceramist Outi Sarkikosky who made these small bowls on the wheel and finished them pinching the rim, silver leaf added after firing.

“Stars over the Gobi Desert”, H90xW165xD175 mm. Porcelain. Tiles are made of stoneware clay.

Other forming methods include slab making, modeling, coiling and of course, wheel throwing. The piece can also be molded either by hand, with the help of pressing machines or slip casted. Extruding the clay, a method formerly used almost only to make bricks and tiles is nowadays a popular forming way for many artists, the ones making outdoor sculpture as much as for those who make tableware and interior decorative or functional items.

Now if you include combined forming ways, there are no boundaries for an imaginative mind:the limit is in the sky. the limit is in the sky.

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.

Remember if you want to buy Celina's book about the Japanese techniques of crefting the ceramics please send an e-mail at info@forumartistico.com or visit www.e-bay.com.