How to make one of my ceramic leaf bowls.

I often wonder, how do others regard 'handmade'?  

What I mean by this is do you think of 'handmade' as something knocked together by your granny, who lives by the make-do-and-mend mantra (which I agree with to a point), or do you see it as something handmade with love by an artisan and which is truly unique? I think both points of view exist, especially in different parts of the country, and the world.

I usually fall on the side of the artisan as I know first hand how much skill and passion goes into making things from scratch. I also appreciate the hand patched apron that granny might wear as I was raised to not be wasteful. 

For those who don't see the skill and passion involved in artisan hand-crafted items I'm going to take you on a journey through how I make one of my ceramic leaf bowls. 

How to make a ceramic leaf bowl. 

Greenware stage of making a leaf bowl.

Each piece of the bowl shown above has first been handmade (there's that word again!) from earthenware clay. The clay was rolled out and each leaf individually made. In this case I have a useful cutter and vein stamp that save me a lot of time but I don't always have them. Each leaf is hand cleaned to prevent any rough edges forming. I start from the base, which is in this example is a circle that I have precut, and assemble the leaves in an overlapping formation. This is important as I need to join the individual leaves to each other with liquid clay (slip). Each leaf is 'scored and slipped' to join them together. I use a bowl to form the shape of the leaf bowl as at this stage the clay is still wet and doesn't hold its shape.

The layers of leaves are built up to the required shape and size. For this bowl I added two little butterflies, which I think bring the piece to life. Here's a close up. 

Close up of the butterfly detail.

Now the bowl needs to be left at least a week in a cool place so that the clay can dry out. This is what we can the 'greenware' stage before firing. 

Once the bowl has dried thoroughly it is ready to be fired in a kiln up to temperatures of approximately 1050 degrees C. My garage gets rather warm! 

Did you know that I named my kiln? Well, I'm daft enough to do that sort of thing. I named him 'Kenny' so that I can say, 'Oh my god, I've kilned Kenny!' That's for the South Park fans out there. I do however, omit the last line as I could do without L'il Miss Ty Siriol learning that!

Anyway, this is a photo of the bowl after it has been 'bisque fired'. The clay at this stage is called 'bisque'. 

The leaf bowl after bisque firing.

The next stage is the painting. With this example I used a blend of pinks with a few glazes.

The first coat of pink glazes.

A second coat of the darker pink was blended in to intensify the colour at the leaf tips.

Once I was happy with the colours I had painted, bearing in mind that the colours will intensify in the kiln, the next stage was to paint on a 2-3 coats of clear glaze. The make I like paints on a pale green colour and looks like this.

The leaf bowl with 2-3 coats of clear glaze. It is now ready to be fired again.

I like to leave the glaze coat overnight before being fired again to make sure that it is fully dry and no bubbles occur. The bowl went back into the kiln for a glaze firing of temperatures up to about 1020 degrees C. I don't like to look too closely at the electric bill! :-)

I love the next bit best. After leaving the kiln to cool overnight it is time to crack it open and see what delights are in there. I never know firstly, if my items will survive the firing, as some things can explode if they are not dry enough, and second, what the colours are going to look like. It's like Christmas Day every time I open the kiln and thankfully I've usually been a good girl and things survive. :-)

The leaf bowl in the kiln after glaze firing. It survived!!

I am extremely pleased with how this bowl came out. I was also very happy as a good friend of mine commissioned it and I don't usually do these on commission due to the failure rate in the kiln. 

Here is the final photo before the bowl was given to its new owner. By the way, its owned by Tracy from Glasspirations. She is also a lover of artisan crafted items and an artisan in her own right. Check out her website here. www.glasspirations.co.uk/

The end result of many weeks work and ready for its new owner.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and now have an insight into what it means when you buy something 'handmade'. I might not like everything I see, as we all have different tastes, but I can see the work and passion that has gone into making these bespoke pieces. I have a huge admiration for artisans and many have become good friends over the years. 

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Thank you for reading.
Cathy x

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