Beautiful mug with polymer clay decor. DIY ceramic products. Manufacturing methods

In this article we will talk about such a popular material today as polymer clay. You can make a lot of beautiful things from it.

Polymer clay is one of the most common materials for needlework. And no wonder, because it is very elastic and completely non-toxic, and the crafts turn out just fantastic!

Moreover, the variety of such crafts is amazing - not only decorations, but also many other things that will definitely decorate your life.

How to work with polymer clay?

So, first of all, let's deal with the fact that What should you stock up on when working with polymer clay?. Half of your success in work depends on the right choice.

Of course, first of all you need to stock up on clay itself, which is sold in special stores for handicrafts. There are enough brands:

You can buy a domestic version of the type "Tsvetika"- it is inexpensive, but unsuitable for sausage preparations. The color palette is not extensive, there are no special effects like mother-of-pearl or metal

IMPORTANT: The most noticeable drawback is that after baking, products from “Tsvetik” become very fragile.

Of the foreign brands, the most common is considered "FIMO"— it offers the buyer a large selection of colors that practically do not change after baking, suitable for a variety of techniques
There are the following types: soft Soft, standard Classic and interesting Effect with additives, transparency, sparkles and mother-of-pearl

"Premo"- is more similar to wax than the previous version. It is very easy to sculpt with. Well suited for sausages
"KATO"— with this brand you will have to suffer a little, since it is baked at a fairly high temperature. As for trying to knead the clay, this will be quite problematic if you don’t use a hammer
You can also pay attention for Polish products- it is strong and affordable. Well suited for use in sculpting. However, if you plan to make sausage blanks, such clay is of little use.
"Cernit"- recommended for those who want to sculpt dolls and imitate stones such as marble. This brand is perfect for those who want to add a touch of transparent to their products. Clay is similar to wax, it is advisable to knead it thoroughly before sculpting

On the packaging of Cernit polymer clay, dolls are drawn - the products that are best made from it

What else can’t the creative process do without?

Without workplace, of course. For this task, it is best to find tiles or glass, since you will have to work with a knife. You can also use a thick sheet of white paper, but this is a last resort.
Knife you need the sharpest one, and preferably special for this kind of work. But if you don’t find one, you can use the stationery one. Pay close attention to the sharpness - the material should not be smeared as a result. And look at the price when choosing the “golden mean”, since cheap ones are very often dull, and expensive ones have an overly thick blade - these include, for example, Japanese

IMPORTANT: Do not use kitchenware under any circumstances! There is a risk of harm to health.

rolling pin also irreplaceable, but not plastic. The fact is that some types of plastic quickly deteriorate under the influence of polymer clay. But you can use a special roller for rolling out clay or
Toothpicks They will help well in making holes in beads, forming parts, and drying beads - it is very convenient to string round parts onto such sticks. Stacks are an alternative to toothpicks, but not made of plastic.
Buttons, pendants and other accessories will make crafts unique
To cut out details, in the absence of special molds, you can take caps or glasses
Emery cloths with waterproof effect They polish well and remove fingerprints from products. A dense material like felt or jeans will help polish
Lucky will definitely be required. You can use construction acrylics with a water base, but the brands Sculpey and Fimo are best suited

The basic rules for working with polymer clay are as follows:

The most important thing is maintaining cleanliness. The surface should be clean, as should your hands. It would be a good idea to stock up on gloves. And try to keep the work area free of lint.

IMPORTANT: Wet wipes will be very helpful when working. They will not only keep your hands and tools clean, but will also help smooth out unevenness in the material.

For softening clay You can use a special product called a plasticizer. Experienced needlewomen recommend the Moldmaker brand. A few peas of the product is quite enough for a pack of clay. As an alternative, creams, Vaseline, and a warming procedure are suitable.
There are also cases when the clay just sticks to your hands, especially fresh. Then you can mix it with harder clay or leave it on a white sheet of paper for several hours. But if paint has already gotten into the material, it’s unlikely that anything can be done
Varnishing of parts occurs in different ways. For flat ones, each side is processed in turn. It is better to first string the round ones onto a toothpick, which, in turn, must be stuck into the plasticine. You can also dip parts in varnish or apply it using a synthetic brush

Whatever clay is chosen, it must be properly used before use. knead— thanks to this, the material becomes plastic, soft and suitable for comfortable modeling

IMPORTANT: Do not ignore this step, otherwise air bubbles will remain in the material, which will transform into tubercles when the clay is heated.

Stock up on special baking gel- for example, such as FIMO liquid. Sometimes you need to glue a pin to a part - in this case, the hole for it needs to be made a little larger, taking into account the glue
Store clay sausages You need it in a film or a well-closing bag. Otherwise, they will not dry out, but will lose their plasticity and become brittle. This is explained by the evaporation of the plasticizer. It’s even better to put the preparations in the refrigerator

At what stage should you start sanding? After the parts are baked, but before varnishing. It is recommended to wipe the parts with a linen towel after sanding - this will make them look velvety.

IMPORTANT: Do not think that varnish will hide material defects. As a rule, he only emphasizes them. Therefore, it is worth taking time to polish.

How to bake polymer clay crafts?

The baking process should be discussed separately, but this does not mean that it is too complicated and requires a special oven.

This is not ceramics - here A regular oven is enough, after all the temperature at which many types of polymer clay harden is only 110-130 degrees.

What should you use to bake crafts? Never on dishes that are used for eating.
It is better to adapt a special baking sheet, covered, in turn, with accordion-folded paper, for a creative impulse.
Much depends on what exactly is being baked. So, the beads will feel great strung on a toothpick stuck in the foil. It is recommended to place flat parts on glass or ceramic tiles
You can place the glass in a baking sleeve, and then take the craft out on the street - this is if you are overcome by doubts about toxicity

In general, to prevent the release of toxic substances, you must adhere to the temperatures indicated on the clay packaging. And even then it is necessary to work with a hood. After each use, the stove must be thoroughly washed.

IMPORTANT: If a smell appears, and the craft itself turns black and even charred, immediately stop baking and ventilate the room thoroughly.

If, after processing in a slab, the product becomes dense, thin parts are able to bend, and during subsequent drilling long chips are formed - everything is in order, you are on the right track.

Polymer clay crafts for beginners step by step: master class

Beginning needlewomen must first of all master master classes on making sausages from polymer clay. Having such sausages, you can later create spectacular details for various products.

Snowflakes, flowers, fern leaves - all this can be easily made from polymer clay

So let's try to do it the simplest strawberry sausages that even a beginner can do:

So, you will need pink, red and white clay. From white make a slightly elongated triangle, and from pink - layer about a millimeter thick

IMPORTANT: Before rolling out the layer, the clay should be thoroughly kneaded.

More You need to make sausages from white clay. You will also need red sausages.. Then they need to be connected to each other

Carefully wrap connected red and white sausages in a pink layer

The resulting red-white-pink sausage should be pulled out in length as carefully as possible. Approximately until it reaches a length of 12 or 13 centimeters. When stretched, the product should in no case lose its original shape.
And after that the sausage can be cut equal pieces

Now from scattered sausages strawberry is forming. Forming it is not difficult at all: the white sausage is wrapped in a pink layer and covered with sausages made of red and white clay in a circle.

IMPORTANT: Do not cover the entire core, leaving the bottom untouched, as shown in the photo.

Now the core turns around again, but this time with a layer of red polymer clay

At this stage The sausage needs to be stretched to a size that is convenient. Please note that for beads it should be thick and short, and for toy pieces it should be thin and long

And here is the final stage - baking! Do this for about half an hour, after which you need to cool the workpiece and cut it into strawberries
When properly manufactured, they should be easy to cut, resembling fairly dense rubber in structure

The described master class is intended for the simplified production of strawberry sausages. If you want something more naturalistic, then You can use a pasta machine.

It allows you to achieve smooth color transitions. As an analogy, take an acrylic rolling pin, but you will have to tinker with it longer.

Fruits made from polymer clay sausages can be used in manicures

Beginners can also practice on buttons- they are very easy to make, and the thing turns out beautiful and useful. So, for the simplest recipe for making will be needed:

Actually, polymer clay
Acrylic paint, which can be used for decoration
Sandpaper
Sleeve in which baking is carried out
Some vintage button

So, to get started you just need roll polymer clay into balls. Choose colors at your discretion. Attach a button to the balls

Now with a thick needle make holes. Such blanks You can immediately wrap it in a sleeve and bake it at a temperature of 110 degrees

IMPORTANT: It is better not to use a baking sheet, as it is not always possible to thoroughly wash it, just like the oven. Even then, leave the oven door slightly open.

Processed with sandpaper baked buttons. You can carefully trim the edges
Now you can add the finishing touches, treating the products with paint or varnish

What to do if you want to make such a trinket, but don’t have a vintage button at hand? No problem: you can form the craft differently, and easy too!

Roll out the polymer clay into layer thinner. Attach a piece of lace to the layer, which you can probably find in any home. But before applying, be sure to lightly sprinkle the clay with water.

Now cover the workpiece with polyethylene- without it, the cutting will be sloppy

You need to press the mold onto the layer. The mold can be of absolutely any shape

It’s easy to follow the resulting contours can be carefully cut future button

Using a toothpick holes are made

Blanks baked, cooled- and now they can be coated with acrylic paint

IMPORTANT: The item must cool in the oven.

Easy crafts made from polymer clay

It will be an easy and useful craft needle magnet. You will need:

Rolling pin and work surface
Mold
Polymer clay
Acrylic paint, brush
Lace
Sandpaper
2 magnets

You can get started:

Clay needs to be properly knead hands
Then her roll out
Using a cookie cutter desired contours are cut out. The edges are trimmed
Now to the preparation lace is pressed in
You can bake the craft in the oven. However, if polymer clay was purchased with the feature of self-hardening, everything is even simpler - you just need to give it the opportunity to harden
Sandpaper the product is being processed
And now You can also apply paint do it the way you want. If you want to decorate the magnet in some other way, now is the time to do it.
On the reverse side of the craft magnet is glued. That's all, it's completely usable! You need to apply a useful craft on a fabric that has been previously hooped.

IMPORTANT: Do not forget about the second magnet, which is attached to the back of the fabric attached to the craft.

The next easy-to-make and useful craft made from polymer clay is jar lid. The lid will outwardly resemble wickerwork, so any jar with it will look economical and cozy. You need to stock up on these things:

Any most ordinary jar lid
Polymer clay any shades. But to recreate the weaving effect, it is best to use beige, red, yellow, green, brown and dark blue.
If there molds- a special mold for creating three-dimensional figures - it will be very useful
PVA glue or liquid plastic
Orange and brown pastel
Green, yellow, white, red acrylic paint
Varnish, also acrylic
Device for rolling out polymer clay- acrylic rolling pin, glass rolling pin, if not available - an ordinary jar
A special machine for processing polymer raw materials, called extruder
Brush for applying paint. In this case, choose a thinner brush
A sharp stick or toothpick

To begin, take a piece of brown clay and rolls out into a layer. Please note that it must be no less than the size of the original cap
The source cover is lubricated liquid plastic or PVA glue

Now clay should be placed on the lid. It should cover the entire surface of the lid, but should not interfere with its closing. You will need to make cuts immediately - This will release air bubbles. Alternatively, you can pierce the clay - this will allow air to escape during baking, otherwise the clay will simply rise
It's time roll the polymer clay into a sausage, then immerse it in the extruder. This needs to be done with brown and beige clay. The thickness can be any

IMPORTANT: If you don’t have an extruder, you just need to gently knead the sausage so that the shades do not mix. After this, you need to gradually cut off pieces from it, rolling them into thin threads.

Now you need to weave the threads. To begin, take a bunch of four and place them horizontally on the lid. The ends should extend beyond the lid. Then take four more threads and place them on top of the previous ones, just perpendicular to them
Lay out the threads so that their ends diverge from each other according to the principle of rays
Take a couple more polymer clay threads and place them in the center of the improvised web. Start weaving according to the chess principle- threading the leading threads first over others, then under them. If you've ever made wreaths or baskets, you should be able to do it very quickly.

You need to weave the web to the edges of the lid. If the threads run out, new ones are simply glued to the old ones. After this, the weaving is carefully removed from the lid and transferred to paper
On the cover PVA or liquid plastic is applied. In the first case, you need to act quickly - before the glue dries

The polymer clay web returns to the lid. And now you need to complete this weaving with edging. It is created from six stripes intertwined with each other in a pigtail.

Now You can decorate the lid to your liking- for example, create flowers or berries from polymer clay, not forgetting to coat them with varnish

Lovers of weaving and simply useful little things will surely like it miniature ring box. We will make it in the form of a basket

You will need:

Clay
Wire, the thickness of which is approximately 0.8-1 millimeter
Stationery knife
Capacity, which resembles a basket. Cream jars are very suitable for this purpose.

So, let's get to work:

Roll out the polymer clay to a sausage shape.. Its thickness should be about 1.5-2 millimeters. It is best to use an extruder, but it is not critical if you do not have one at hand
This The sausage must be cut into pieces 3 centimeters long

IMPORTANT: Make sure the number of pieces is odd.

The container itself should be turned over. After this you can stick polymer clay slices on it

Carefully need to cut off excess parts pieces so that they are the same length

Now a circle is made from clay. It needs to be attached to the bottom of the container. For a better effect, it would be good to iron this circle with a toothpick.

The jar is placed in this form in the oven. The temperature depends on the type of clay, but 5 or 8 minutes will be enough. After baking, the jar is immersed in cold water, cooled and freed from polymer clay.

Roll the sausage as long as you can make it. However, it will be possible to connect sausages during the weaving process, which is easier to do with an extruder

IMPORTANT: After weaving, you should not adjust the basket from the sides, otherwise the natural effect of weaving will disappear.

If you want to complete the base of the basket, you can weave two-part braid and stick it on top. A You can stick a clay circle to the bottom from the inside- this will make the bottom more neat

All that remains is to make the handle of the basket, which is what the wire is useful for. Measure the desired length and bend it with an arc

The final stage is wrapping the handle frame with a polymer clay sausage. You must remember to leave 5 millimeters on both sides. Next, the handle is attached to the base, and this whole composition goes into the oven for 20 minutes

DIY polymer clay doll

A doll made of polymer clay will be an excellent gift for a child, and it will fit well into the interior of an adult. Of course, each doll is individual, but the general manufacturing nuances are still present.

Experienced needlewomen are convinced that the proportions of a living person are not suitable for a doll - the head turns out to be small and the arms are too long. AND the surest way to calculate proportions- this is to remember that one body of a toy is measured by seven heads. The palm is equal to the width of the face, and the foot is 1.5 palms wide.

Creativity should always start from the head, twisting a loop of wire. Foil should then be wrapped around this base.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to wrap the foil tightly.

Now polymer clay comes into play, which needs to be kneaded thoroughly, and then covered with foil. It is important to smooth out all unnecessary irregularities.

Perhaps the most time-consuming thing is start drawing facial features. It is necessary to highlight not only the eyes, nose, mouth, but also not to forget about the forehead and chin. There is no need to color anything yet - just a relief designation of features. And remember that the face should be convex.

After that the workpiece is placed in the oven. Baking temperature depends on the clay manufacturer's recommendations.

Hands can be done next- cylindrical pieces are formed from clay. They need to be rolled out.

Hands made of polymer clay at the initial stage are cylindrical pieces

Using a stack fingers are forming. It is very important to carefully separate them without damaging them. Next, give the handles a natural look by rounding their outlines and not forgetting about the folds.

Now You can sanitize your hands in the oven, having previously placed them on the wire.

Making legs begins, oddly enough, with the feet- they are made from parts, one side of which should be thicker than the other. The stack represents fingers and folds.

Pieces are attached to the feet, which are then transformed into a leg up to the shin. The legs are baked in the same way as other parts of the doll's body.

IMPORTANT: To attach the legs, take the longest pieces of wire, because they will form the main frame of the doll.

And now it’s time to put the scattered parts together general frame. To do this, a wire from the head is connected to pieces from the arms, and a long wire from the legs is screwed to all this. Where the doll's waist is planned, the wire should be twisted.

Now you can bake the doll.

And now the most interesting part begins - the formation of appearance. Recommended for face painting use acrylic paints and brushes No. 10. For the eyes you will need the thinnest brush.

As for hair, then you can use a wig for a good cause, forming your hair in parts. You can form strands from silk threads.

Or you can use wool for felting - it makes fantastic doll hair.

Outfit it can be sewn in any way, depending on the idea and the materials at hand.

Doll made of polymer clay by Canadian artist Martha Boers

Another polymer clay miracle from Martha Boers

DIY clay toys

You can make a lot of toys from polymer clay - it all depends solely on your imagination. Let's try to make this year's symbol in this lesson - fire monkey.

First of all, carefully knead the clay and create an oval from the orange piece- this is the future head of the monkey. Flatten it a little for the face
For body need to make another oval, only remade in the form of a drop

The head and body are held together like this so that the body is attached with the smaller side of the drop
A thin pancake is formed from beige polymer clay, on which you need to make a recess on top

IMPORTANT: A thin toothpick is just right for shaping pieces of polymer clay.

A beige pancake is placed on the head. And closer to the bottom. And the recess should “look” upward
Using Dots small dimples form for the eyes. The nostrils and mouth are designated using the same principle.
Roll two small circles from black polymer clay. They are placed with light pressure in the eye sockets
Roll 2 balls from orange and beige clay. Moreover, beige is smaller than orange. Pancakes are made from them. Beige overlaps orange

Polymer clay ears

The resulting ball is cut into two parts - these are the ears.. They are attached to the sides of the head with pressure. The joints should be smoothed out
You can make a monkey look playful with bangs- this is a small orange droplet, glued with the wide part up. The bottom one needs to be tightened a little
And now the arms and legs are formed from 4 sausages in the form of drops. For your hands, roll into smaller drops. Make indentations in the wide parts of all four sausages.

Form 4 drops from beige clay, and cut out fingers on their wide parts - these are palms and feet. Attach them to the indentations of the arms and legs

From orange clay tail is formed, pointed on one side, and also curled in the form of a question mark on the other

Now all parts of the body are attached to the torso, and the toy is baked

DIY clay sculptures

Garden sculpture is both interesting and functional. It is unlikely that you will want to spend money on buying a finished sculpture, but you can try to make one yourself. Eg, owl, for which you will need:

Capacity for mixing material approximately 5 liters
Approximately 6 cups of plaster of Paris
500 grams polymer clay, which itself can harden
Water
Skewers made of wood or thick wire, stacks
Plastic bag
Paint brushes No. 1 and No. 5
Owls will also be useful for decorating gouache, glass eyes, matte varnish, yellow and black nail polishes

So, let's start with the fact that you need to tightly lay a plastic bag in the bucket for mixing the material. Separately about 4 cups of gypsum are mixed

IMPORTANT: The consistency of the dough should resemble cottage cheese with sour cream. But there shouldn't be any lumps.

After kneading, the dough is transferred to a bucket- it will occupy a third of the capacity. The form in which the material was mixed is quickly washed out. Well, skewers are inserted into the dough so that they stick out halfway from the plaster. The plaster must be leveled and left to harden for 2 hours.
After hardening plaster is taken out of a bucket

Now you need to mix the plaster again to the same state, as last time. It is laid out on skewers. You need to form the outline of an owl. The container is immediately washed, and the workpiece hardens within 24 hours

And here the creativity begins: breaking off pieces of polymer clay, stick them little by little to the gypsum base

IMPORTANT: After breaking off a piece, immediately wrap the remaining polymer clay in cellophane, otherwise it will harden.

Then feathers are drawn— it is advisable to do this with the help of a pusher. Glass eyes are inserted

Formed from polymer clay back and wings
Black and yellow nail polishes eyes are painted. The advantage of this varnish is that it is transparent, and therefore will retain the shine of the glass.

But now you can get down to business tail. Moreover, for reliability, it must be formed in tiers and processed with a pusher
Are drawn wings

If there is excess clay left, you can make additional decorations in the form of a ladybug, for example. The owl is dried and painted with gouache. Top coated with matte varnish

Polymer clay cup

It is highly undesirable to make a cup entirely from polymer clay, since storing and serving food in it can have unpleasant health consequences. But decorating the cup is quite possible. For this you will need:

Polymer clay
Toothpicks, stacks
Utility knife or good blade
Pastel of the color you need for decoration
Room temperature water

Let's get started:

So first of all need to work on the sketch, because in the process it will be quite difficult to decorate at random
Now, based on the sketch, you can begin to attach polymer clay, recreating certain details. Help yourself with toothpicks or stacks
Once the clay outlines are formed, you can connect pastel— it emphasizes the 3D effect of the decor
Now burn the cup at a temperature of 120 degrees
And after this procedure polymer clay parts must be carefully removed from the cup. The best way to help yourself is with a stationery knife.
Rinse the cup with warm water. Dry it, degrease it
Carefully grease each of the decorative details with glue and attach them to the cup. Remove any glue that extends beyond the decor using a toothpick.

IMPORTANT: The most important thing in this matter is slowness. Otherwise, fragile elements will break.

Wait 12 hours— during this time the work should dry. But to be sure of this, after 12 hours, wash the product under running water and soap. Dry the cup and it can be used after 12 hours

Vase made of polymer clay

So, first way decorating some simple vase:

Cut out petals, twigs, leaves
Stick all this splendor on a vase
Draw the background, color the decorative details
The vase now needs to be placed in the oven for about 20 minutes. Set the temperature to 120 degrees
Let the vase cool, coat it with varnish

We offer Another option for decorating a glass vase:

In this case, use stamps, stacks, or coloring pigment in the consistency of powder. Pour this powder onto a layer of polymer clay and rub it with your fingers to achieve smooth shade transitions. You can pre-designate patterns with stamps
Now cut out the figures from the plastic. You can use scissors, or you can use a stationery knife. Let the figures be of different sizes - it looks just great in design
The figurines need to be baked following the instructions on the clay packaging
Roll out another layer of polymer clay- the figures will be attached to it

IMPORTANT: The base layer must be equal in size to the glass vase. And in thickness it should be denser than the layer from which the decorative parts were cut.

Using glue, attach the base layer to the vase. Press in the details into this layer, helping yourself in this work with glue
Apply pearlescent varnish to the entire surface. It is recommended to use a large brush
Now place the vase in the oven for 5 minutes. Temperature - 265 degrees
So we only processed one side. Repeat this algorithm for others, remembering to let the vase cool after each baking

DIY clay flowers

Polymer clay makes great flowers for decoration. Eg, delicate sakura flowers:

First of all, make a sausage out of pink and white polymer clay. The color transitions should be smooth, for which you can use a pasta machine. But you will need a little clay, so you can try to shape it by hand
Once the sausage has rolled, cut it into pieces. a millimeter or 1.5 millimeters thick Then bend a drop of polymer clay

Now pinch the polymer clay piece at one end to create a petal
- You can start collecting the flower. Connect all the petals - sakura should have from 7 to 11 pieces. Better help yourself with a toothpick
IMPORTANT: Regardless of whether you use a toothpick to help you form the petals or not, you need to bake the flower on a toothpick.
- Now make a sakura bud, the principle of creation of which, by the way, is the same for any color. So, take a thin wire no more than 0.3 millimeters thick and 15 centimeters long
- Form a loop at one end of the wire, connect the loop with a piece of polymer clay. You should roll a drop from a piece in advance
- Create 3 more petals, stick them on the drop
Glue the petals onto a drop of polymer clay
- For more naturalness better to start creating sepals. Sakura, as well as roses, cherries, sepals have 5 petals

DIY pottery

Have you ever watched how a swallow makes its nest? In addition to blades of grass, used by all feathered builders, clay is also used. Moreover, clay is the main building material for swallows. No wonder people say: “A bee sculpts from wax, and a swallow from clay.” Softening the clay with a liquid secreted by special glands, the swallow, like a real potter, sculpts a deep bowl, lump by lump. When it dries, it becomes so strong that if it accidentally falls, it will not break. It is quite possible that in very distant times, observations of swallow work gave people the idea of building adobe dwellings and mud huts. Until now, using the “swallow technology”, raw bricks are made from unfired clay, used for the construction of various buildings, not only rural, but also urban. As you know, highly compacted clay does not allow moisture to pass through, so in folk construction not only walls, but also floors and roofs were made from it. To increase the strength of the adobe floor, it was watered with salt water from time to time.

Clay has become so firmly established in the construction industry that even in our reinforced concrete age, a third of the planet’s population lives in adobe dwellings. And this is not counting the houses made of baked bricks.

In ancient times they wrote on thin clay tablets in the same way as they write on paper now. (By the way, white clay is necessarily included in modern paper. This means that to some extent we still write on clay.) Among the clay tablets found during excavations there are all kinds of documents: laws, certificates, business reports. Clay tablets became the pages of the very first books written by ancient authors. Epic poems, religious hymns, proverbs and sayings composed in those distant years were immortalized on them. After completing the inscriptions, some tablets were only dried well in the sun, while others, more valuable, intended for long-term storage, were burned. Since time immemorial, people have sculpted from clay objects necessary for everyday life, primarily dishes. The only problem is: dishes made from unfired clay are very fragile and are also afraid of moisture. Only dry foods could be stored in such containers. While raking up the ashes of a dying fire, the ancient man more than once noticed that the clay soil in the place where the fire burned became hard as stone and was not washed away by rain. Perhaps this observation inspired a person to burn dishes at a fire. Be that as it may, clay baked in a fire was the first artificial material in the history of mankind, which later received the name ceramics. With the development of technology, molded and dried clay products began to be fired not in fires, but in special furnaces - forges. In Rus', the very word “potter” comes from the name of kilns. In the old days, craftsmen who worked with clay were called potters, but over time the letter “r”, which made it difficult to pronounce, was lost. Ceramics are the most common finds of archaeologists. Indeed, unlike wood, clay does not rot or burn, does not oxidize, like metal. Many clay objects have reached us in their original form. This is primarily a variety of dishes, lamps, children's toys, religious figurines, casting molds, sinkers for fishing nets, spindle whorls, spools of thread, beads, buttons and much more.

In the hands of talented craftsmen, ordinary things turned into true works of decorative and applied art. The art of ceramics reached high development in Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece and China. Many museums around the world are decorated with dishes made by ancient potters. The old masters knew how to sculpt dishes that were sometimes gigantic in size. The Greek pithoi - vessels for water and wine, reaching a height of two meters - amaze with their high technical skill. It was in a pithos vessel, and not in a barrel, as is commonly believed, that the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes lived.

In our time, many of the secrets that the ancient masters possessed have been lost. Despite the high development of production, modern ceramists have not yet been able to uncover the secret of preparing the glaze that covers two large vases discovered during excavations by Chinese archaeologists. When water was poured into the found vases, the glaze immediately darkened and changed color. As soon as the water was poured out, the vessels regained their original whiteness. Ho

Even though these amazing chameleon vases were made by Chinese potters more than a thousand years ago, they have not lost their amazing properties. Ancient Rus' was also famous for ceramics. Bowls, dishes, jugs, egg capsules, wash basins, stove pots and even calendar jugs came out of the potters' workshops. Each calendar was a jug on which certain signs were applied with stamps in a rectangle allocated to each month. In addition to calendars designed for the whole year, there were agricultural calendars covering the period from April to August, that is, from sowing to grain harvest. On such a calendar, special signs indicated the most important pagan holidays, dates for field work, and even days when it was necessary to ask the sky for rain or buckets (sunny weather). Blessed water was poured into the calendar jug itself, which was used to sprinkle the fields during the prayer service. Russian potters painted tableware with special ceramic paints or engobes (liquid colored clays) and covered them with glassy glaze. Especially a lot of black-polished clothes were made. Slightly dried items were rubbed to a shine with a polish (smooth stone or polished bone), and then fired over a smoky flame without allowing oxygen into the forge. After firing, the dishes acquired a beautiful silver-black or gray surface, at the same time it became more durable and less permeable to moisture. There is pottery in every modern home, although it is difficult to believe that sparkling white porcelain cups and plates are relatives of smoky stove pots, throaters and all kinds of makhotkas fashioned from dark clay. But dishes made of white and dark clay are not rivals; each is good for its purpose.

The most aromatic tea can only be brewed in a porcelain teapot, and the most delicious cow's milk varenets can only be prepared in a clay pot and even in a Russian oven.

In modern urban housing, clay is also present in the form of all kinds of facing slabs, bathtubs, and sinks.

In a word, clay is always a modern material, without which it is impossible to do without either in the present or in the future. Since ancient times, clay has served man not only as a raw material for ceramics and construction. Traditional healers used clay as a kind of healing agent. For example, strained veins were treated with a plaster made from yellow clay diluted in vinegar. In order to relieve pain in the lower back and joints, a clay patch diluted in hot water with the addition of kerosene was applied to the sore spots. Healers preferred stove clay, using it for divination, whispering against the evil eye and treating fever. Various pottery dishes were used as medical equipment. Medicines were prepared in some vessels, and dried herbs and roots were stored in others. And the smallest pots, which were called makhotkas due to their small size, were used for colds as ordinary medical jars. Probably the first medical heating pad was also made of clay. At first, a jug with a narrow neck was used as a heating pad, into which hot water was poured. Then, on orders from doctors, potters began to make special medical heating pads in the form of a low vessel with a flat, wide bottom and a tightly closing neck. Even an ordinary red brick is said to have been put in the service of health. It was heated in an oven, then onion peels were sprinkled on top, inhaling the smoke that appeared. Modern medicine confirms that such inhalation helps with colds. Using a hot brick, you can also disinfect a room and drive mosquitoes and flies out of it. Only in these cases, instead of onion peels, wormwood and juniper branches were used.

Few people know that the inhabitants of the North - the Chukchi and Koryaks - used clay... for food. Of course, not just any clay, but white clay, called “earth fat” by the northerners. They ate earthen fat along with reindeer milk or added it to meat broth. Europeans did not disdain “edible” clay, making delicacies from it like candies.

I was on the topanka..."

I was at the Kopanets, I was at the Topanska, I was at the circle, I was at the fire, I was at the scald. When he was young, he fed people, but when he got old, he began to take swaddling clothes.” In the old days, anyone could guess this riddle. The hero of the riddle is an ordinary stove pot. Using his example, you can trace the entire path that clay takes before becoming a ceramic product. “Kopants” was the name given to the village potters to the pit or quarry where clay was mined. From the kopanets, the clay fell onto the “topanets” - a flat place in the yard or hut, where they trampled it with their feet, carefully kneading it and picking out the pebbles that got into it. After such processing, the clay went to the “circle”, that is, to the potter’s wheel, where it took the shape of a pot or some other vessel. When the pot was completely dry, it was sent to the “fire,” or rather to the oven, where after firing it became hard as stone. But in order for the pot not to absorb moisture, it had to be “scalded.” To do this, it was dipped hot into kvass grounds or liquid flour mash.

The second part of the riddle figuratively and briefly shows the further fate of the finished pottery. It is hardly worth specially explaining how the stove pot “fed people,” but why it began to “become swaddled” in old age is hardly clear to modern people. The fact is that in the past, housewives were in no hurry to throw away old cracked pots. They were wrapped in narrow steamed ribbons of birch bark, as if they were swaddling. Pots and other pottery wrapped in birch bark could serve for many years. We will have to remember this old Russian riddle more than once, but for now we will talk about the Kopan people and “living clay”.

Potters called “living clay” clay that is found in nature in its natural state.

The clay found in nature is so diverse in composition that in the depths of the earth you can actually find a ready-made clay mixture suitable for making any type of ceramics - from sparkling white earthenware to red stove bricks. Of course, large deposits of valuable types of clay are rare, so factories and plants for the production of ceramics arise near such natural storehouses, as, for example, in Gzhel near Moscow, where white clay was once discovered. Every self-respecting village potter also had his own, albeit small, treasured deposits, or more simply, Kopan pits, where he extracted clay suitable for work. Sometimes they had to travel many miles to get the clay they needed, extracting it from deep holes with incredible difficulty. Moreover, one deposit was not always enough, since different products required different clay compositions. For example, rich ferruginous clay is best suited for black-polished ceramics. It is highly plastic, perfectly shaped on a pottery wheel, and after drying it can be ironed to a mirror shine. Dishes made from such clay do not allow moisture to pass through and are highly durable. One problem: oily clay cracks easily when dried and subsequently fired. Products of thin clay containing a significant amount of sand have a rough surface, and they also strongly absorb moisture. But when drying and firing, skinny clay very rarely cracks. For good clay, the golden mean is preferable when it has medium fat content.

Clay containing less than 5% sand is considered oily, while lean clay contains up to 30% sand. Medium fat clay contains 15% sand.

You can find suitable clay for modeling and pottery almost anywhere, if you wish. In addition, a small amount of clay can always be “corrected” by elutriation and other methods. Clay may lie immediately below the soil layer at a shallow depth. In garden plots it can be found during various land works. Layers of clay quite often come to the surface along the banks of rivers and lakes, in slopes and slopes of ravines. In the Non-Black Earth Region there are areas where clay is literally underfoot and in wet weather on country roads it turns into a solid mess, causing indignation among passers-by. Even from such “dirt” collected on the road, small decorative items can be sculpted and then fired. But, of course, this should not be done. Even where there is clay soil all around, you need to dig at least a shallow ditch to get to cleaner and more uniform layers.

Clay suitable for modeling can be successfully prepared even in a big city. After all, somewhere nearby, builders are digging foundation pits for a new house, or water or gas pipelines are being repaired. In this case, clay layers that lay at great depths appear on the surface.

You can determine the suitability of clay for modeling in a fairly simple way. From a small lump of moistened clay taken for testing, roll a rope between your palms about the thickness of your index finger. Then slowly fold it in half. If at the same time no cracks or very few of them form at the bend, then the clay is quite suitable for work and, in all likelihood, it contains 10-15% sand.

Each type of clay changes its color at a certain stage of modeling, drying and firing. Dried clay differs from raw clay only in a lighter tone, but when fired, most clays dramatically change their color. The only exception is white clay, which, when moistened, acquires only a slight gray tint, and after firing remains the same white. The color of “living clay,” which is usually in a wet state, is most often deceptive. After firing, it can suddenly change dramatically: green will turn pink, brown - red, and blue and black - white. As you know, craftswomen from the village of Filimonovo, Tula region, sculpt their toys from black and blue clay. Only after being dried in a kiln do the toys become white with a slightly creamy tint. The miraculous transformation that occurred with the clay can be explained very simply: under the influence of high temperature, organic particles burned out, which gave the clay a black color before firing. By the way, such particles are found in chernozem, where they also determine the color of this soil. The color of clay, both in the raw and in the fired state, is also influenced by various mineral impurities and metal salts contained in it. If, for example, the clay contains iron oxides, then after firing it turns red, orange or purple. Based on the color that the clay acquires after firing, there are white-burning clay (white color), light-burning clay (light gray, light yellow, light pink color), dark-burning clay (red, red-brown, brown, brown-violet color). To determine what kind of clay you are dealing with, make a plate from a small piece or roll it into a ball, which, after thoroughly drying, is fired in the oven. Place the prepared clay in wooden boxes and fill it with water so that individual lumps protrude slightly above the surface. It is advisable to immediately prepare as much clay as possible. When there is an abundance of clay, only a small part of it is consumed, and the rest will be constantly aged. The more the clay is kept wet, the better. Previously, potters kept clay in the open air in the so-called clay pit - a special pit, the walls of which were made of logs, blocks or thick boards. The clay had to lie in the clay pot for at least three months, but sometimes it was in open storage for several years. In spring and summer it was burned by the sun's rays, in the fall the winds blew and rained, in winter it froze in the cold and thawed during the thaw, then melt water penetrated into it. But all this was only beneficial for the clay, since it was loosened by numerous microcracks, while harmful organic impurities were oxidized and soluble salts were washed out.

The centuries-old practice of folk craftsmen has shown that the longer the clay is aged, the better its quality...
The clay, which has the optimal fat content and has aged well, just needs to be thoroughly kneaded and the pebbles that accidentally fall into it should be selected. In the past, clay was kneaded in a pottery or hut on the floor sprinkled with sand, which is called “topanets” in the riddle about the pot. Often the whole family, including children, was involved in kneading and cleaning the clay. The clay was trampled with bare feet until it turned into a thin plate, which was immediately rolled into a roll. The roll was then folded in half and trampled again. When the clay regained the shape of a plate, a new roll was rolled up. This was repeated up to five times until the clay turned into a homogeneous mass, soft and pliable, like pie dough. By the way, well-washed and cleaned clay, ready for pottery work, is called clay dough.

Sifting clay

If you decide to sift the clay, then spread it in small lumps on a wooden floor and dry it in the sun (Fig. 1.1). In winter, the clay dries well in the cold, spread out under a canopy where snow does not fall. A small amount of clay can be dried indoors, on a warm stove or on a central heating radiator. Of course, the smaller the lumps, the faster the clay will dry. Pour the dried clay into a thick-walled wooden box and break it with a tamper - a massive piece of tree trunk with handles fixed on top (1.2). Sift the resulting clay dust through a fine sieve and remove from it all kinds of impurities in the form of pebbles, chips, blades of grass and large grains of sand (1.3). Before modeling, the clay powder is kneaded in the same way as bread dough, adding water from time to time and thoroughly mixing the clay mass with your hands. It is advisable to store some of the clay powder in case the clay dough needs to be quickly made thicker, but there is no time for drying and evaporation. Add the required amount of powder to the liquid clay dough and then knead well.

Clay elutriation

When elutriated, the clay not only becomes purified, but also becomes fattier and more flexible. Therefore, clay that contains a lot of sand and has low plasticity is most often elutriated.

You need to soak the clay in a tall vessel, such as a bucket.

Pour one part clay with three parts water and leave overnight. In the morning, thoroughly stir the clay with a stirrer until a homogeneous solution is obtained. Then let the solution sit for a long time. As soon as the water clears from the top, carefully drain it using a rubber hose. But it is not so easy to drain the water without muddying it. Therefore, even in ancient times, a simple and ingenious device was invented, which is still used by Japanese potters (Fig. 1.4). Several holes are drilled vertically in a wooden tub at a short distance from each other. Before filling the tub with liquid clay mortar, each hole is plugged with a wooden stopper. Heavier grains of sand and various kinds of pebbles settle to the bottom first. Then, after settling, clay particles fall down. Gradually, the water from above brightens and finally becomes transparent (1.4a). As soon as the level of clear water seems just below the top hole, the plug is pulled out and the cleared, settled water is poured out of the barrel (1.46). After some time, remove the plug located below. This way all the settled water is gradually drained out. To speed up the process of clay settling, bitter Epsom salt is first added to the solution (about one pinch per bucket). Instead of a wooden tub, you can use a suitable metal container. At different levels, short tubes are soldered into it and plugged with plugs.

After removing the settled water, carefully scoop out the liquid clay, leaving the bottom layer untouched, which contains pebbles and sand that have settled to the bottom. Pour the clay solution into a wide wooden box or basin and place it in the sun so that excess moisture evaporates from the clay faster (1.5). As soon as the dried clay loses its fluidity, stir it with a shovel from time to time. After the clay acquires the consistency of thick dough and stops sticking to your hands, it is covered with plastic film or oilcloth and stored until the start of modeling work.

Leaning Supplements

When making large products, so-called leaning additives are introduced into fatty clay, which help reduce shrinkage during drying and firing, thereby preventing the appearance of cracks and warping on the product.

Even in ancient times, when making large vessels intended for storing food, grus - coarse sand obtained by crushing sandstone - was added to the clay dough. But the most common waste material has always been fine sand. To remove foreign matter from the sand, it is washed several times with clean water and then dried. Sometimes other thinning materials are added to clay to give it additional properties. Ceramics will become lighter and more porous if you add a little sawdust into the clay dough. Instead of sawdust, folk craftsmen of Central Asia add poplar fluff and swamp plant cattail fluff to the clay, as well as crushed animal hair. The admixture of so-called fireclay makes the ceramics more fire-resistant. Fireclay can be made from refractory bricks, which are first pounded and sifted through a sieve, removing ceramic dust. The crumbs remaining in the sieve, no larger than a millet seed, are fireclay. It is added to the clay dough no more than 1/5 of the total mass.

Along with fireclay, crushed and sifted ceramic ware is used to produce fire-resistant ceramics.

“Breaking” the clay

Immediately before modeling, in order to remove air bubbles from the aged clay and increase its uniformity, the clay dough is “beaten” and kneaded. “Killing” the clay is indispensable in cases where the clay, for some reason, has not been cleaned well enough and there are small pebbles and other foreign inclusions in it. Processing begins by rolling a piece of clay into a bun (Fig. 2.1), which is then lifted and thrown forcefully onto a table or workbench. In this case, the bun is slightly flattened and takes the shape of a loaf. Take a pottery string in your hands (steel wire with two wooden handles at the ends (2.2)) and cut the “loaf” into two parts (2.3). Having lifted the top half, turn it over with the cut side up and throw it forcefully onto the table. The lower half is also thrown onto it with force, without turning it over (2.4). The stuck halves are cut from top to bottom with a string, then one of the cut pieces of clay is thrown onto the table, and the second one is thrown onto it (2.5). This operation is repeated several times. When cutting clay dough, the string pushes out all kinds of pebbles encountered along the way, opens voids and destroys air bubbles. The more cuts you make, the cleaner and more uniform the clay dough will become.

You can also process clay dough using a carpenter's plow or a large knife (Fig. 3). The lump of clay is thoroughly compacted using a massive wooden mallet (3.1). Then it is pressed forcefully against a table or workbench and the thinnest plates (3.26) are cut off with a plow (3.2a) or a knife. All kinds of foreign inclusions that fall under the blade are thrown aside. The thinner the slices are cut, the cleaner and more uniform the clay dough becomes. The plates obtained after planing are again collected into a single lump and compacted with a mallet until it becomes monolithic (3.3). The lump of clay prepared in this way is planed again. These techniques are repeated until the clay dough becomes homogeneous and plastic.

Shift clay

This is the last stage of preparing clay dough intended for modeling. Take a lump of clay in your hands (Fig. 4.1) and roll it out so that you get an elongated roller (4.2). Then the roller is bent in half (4.3) and crushed so that it again forms a rounded lump (4.4). From this moment on, all miner operations are repeated in the same sequence several times.

The plasticity of clay dough depends not only on the uniformity of its structure and composition, but also on humidity.

If the clay is too dry, it is generously sprinkled with water before each subsequent shift.

Determine the plasticity of clay in a way already known to you. A small lump of clay (4.5a) is rolled out between the palms (4.56). The resulting tourniquet is bent in half. If the clay has high plasticity, then not a single crack will appear at the bend of the rope (4.5c).

The presence of cracks indicates that the clay is too dry and needs to be moistened (4.5g).

There are many folk ways of preparing clay dough. In some regions of Russia, toy makers knead and then separate the clay into separate pieces in the following way. The clay lump (Fig. 5.1) is flattened with a wooden hammer (5.2). The resulting plate is rolled into a roll (5.3). The roll is crushed with a hammer and molded into the same lump that was at the very beginning (5.4). The molded lump is flattened again (5.5) and the plate is rolled into a roll (5.6). Having done all this several times, the roll is thoroughly kneaded and a tourniquet is rolled out of the resulting lump, which is cut into “slices” with a knife (5.7). Each “piece,” depending on the size of the future workpiece, is cut in turn into two or four parts (5.8). Each half and quarter is rolled out in the palms, obtaining blanks in the form of balls of the same size (5.9). The blanks are placed in a wooden box, covered first with a moistened cloth, and then with oilcloth or plastic film. Sometimes they are placed in some kind of metal container with a lid on top. In this form, the blanks can be stored for more than a month without losing their original plasticity.

Drying clay products

Before getting into the “fire,” each clay product must go through a preparatory stage called drying.

Drying is a rather lengthy process. Haste can negate all previous work: when drying quickly, the product becomes covered with numerous cracks and warps. At the first stage of drying, moisture from the product should evaporate as slowly as possible. In the first days, folk craftsmen dry dishes and toys indoors or under a canopy in a quiet, windy place where there are no drafts. Pre-drying takes two to three days. After this, the products were dried in a heated oven. The better the clay dries, the greater the hope that there will be no defects during firing.

A product that has a complex shape with many details must be dried with extreme care, for example, by placing it in a metal container or box, covering it with a sheet of newspaper on top. A large product can be covered on top with a dry cloth. On the second day, remove the rag, but continue to dry the product in the shade. On about the fourth day, a medium-sized product can be dried on a stove or on a central heating radiator. Dried clay acquires sufficiently high strength necessary for further processing. Before firing, each product must be carefully inspected. If cracks are found, they must be carefully repaired. The crack is moistened with water and covered with soft clay. In addition to cracks, the product may contain all sorts of irregularities, accidental deposits, clay chips adhering to the surface and small scratches. Damaged areas should be treated with a scraper and cleaned with fine-grained sandpaper, and then remove clay dust with a wide brush or broom.

To give the product shine, polishing is used. One of the ancient methods of polishing is very simple. The surface of the dried product is rubbed with any smooth object, compacting the top layer of clay until shiny.

After firing, the shine becomes stronger. Polished dishes can be safely used in the household, as they are quite moisture resistant. In Rus', polished dishes were additionally subjected to blackening for decorative purposes. To do this, at the end of firing, some kind of smoking fuel, for example, var, was thrown into the furnace. Absorbing smoke, the vessels turned black, retaining their shine. There is another way to blacken dishes. Heated ceramics are thrown into sawdust or chopped straw.

Firing clay. Construction of a traditional pottery forge

Old Russian potters cut their forge into the side of a hill. You can see how it looked in the picture, in which the forge is drawn in section.

Furnace for firing ceramics

Old Russian pottery forges: a single-tiered one from Belgorod (general view) and a two-tiered one from the Donetsk settlement (section).

Handicraft forges of open and closed types.
You will need a lot of clay for the forge. First it must be carefully prepared. The clay should not be too greasy - to one part of clay you need to add three parts of sand. After adding water, knead the mass in a large trough. Make sure it is not too liquid! To mix, whittle a large wooden shovel out of a board.

Having chosen a place for the oven, place a layer of clay on it and compact it well. On this layer, make a platform of bricks or boulder stones (use only granite stones, limestone is not suitable for this). Fasten the stones with clay mortar.

On this site we will lay out a round oven with a diameter of approximately 1 m. It is made like a very large pot from strands. The strands need to be thick, with a diameter of at least 20 cm. The thicker the walls of the oven, the better it will hold heat.
Having laid out the first circle, continue laying out the strands in a spiral. Having laid every three rows, level the walls and tamp them down with a wooden mallet.

Having raised the walls to a height of 30 cm, the lower chamber of the forge is ready, firewood will burn in it.
Now you need to install the grates on which you will place the fired products. For the grate bars, you need to find iron rods, gratings, and meshes in advance.

Lay the rods across the stove at a short distance from each other so that the clay products do not fall between them. If the rods protrude slightly beyond the edges of the forge, this is not a problem.

Now continue to build walls, reducing the diameter of the spiral with each turn. Now the second chamber is ready, in which the fired products will be placed. We leave a round hole at the top - a hatch for loading the forge.
Cut the hole for the firebox through which the firewood is placed with a large knife or sapper shovel immediately after the walls are erected, before the clay has dried.

Near the “entrance” to the stove, make a clay gate from strands. You can decorate the stove with pasted patterns - let it be, for example, a fire-breathing dragon.
Depending on the weather, the finished forge takes 10-15 days to dry. It is better to cover it with burlap for one or two days and then dry it in the open air. If cracks form during drying, fill them with clay mass. Cover the forge from rain with a piece of polyethylene, or even better, build a small canopy over it.

When the forge dries, it needs to be fired. It’s good if by this time you also have accumulated products for firing - then you will save both firewood and time. The forge is loaded through the top hole. First, large products are placed on the grates, then smaller products are placed between them and on them. The hatch is covered with a sheet of iron and covered with shards and dry earth. But leave a small gap on top for the smoke to escape, otherwise there will be no air movement and the fire will not flare up.
First, the stove is heated over low heat, and then more and more wood is added.

Firing begins in the morning and ends in the evening. At night the forge will cool down, and in the morning it will be possible to “unload” it, that is, remove the finished products from it. If you don't have enough clay on hand to make a forge, you can build one using bricks using the same pattern. The temperature in the pottery forge reaches 900°C. Products in the furnace are heated evenly.

Clay scald

Scalding is the last stage of processing pottery in village potteries.

After scalding, pottery becomes less permeable to water and also more durable.

Scalding is done immediately after the still hot dishes are removed from the furnace. Holding it with tongs, it was dipped into a pre-prepared liquid paste solution made from rye or oatmeal. The pottery was also boiled in kvass grounds, which usually remained at the bottom of the kvass container. Potters of Central Asia used whey for the same purposes.

Flour broth and kvass grounds penetrate deep into the walls of the pottery, scald and reliably clog its pores. After scalding, the appearance of the dishes also changes: it is covered with numerous dark spots, giving it a unique identity. In addition, spots, according to village potters, protect the contents of the vessel from the evil eye.

Gradually, scalding began to be used less and less, potters increasingly use glaze or glaze - covering products with the thinnest layer of glass.

Recently, it has become very fashionable to make dishes and various interior items from clay with your own hands. We at the How to Green editorial office decided to figure out the reasons for the popularity of handmade ceramics, and turned to ceramic artistElena Subbotina . She named as many as 7 reasons (in addition to the obvious - creative self-realization and acquiring new craft knowledge) why it is worth making dishes for the home and various small items for the interior with your own hands.

Reason 1: uniqueness

Obviously, you can make a 100% unique set or tea pair for your kitchen either to order or with your own hands. Doing it yourself will be much cheaper. You have the opportunity to bring to life the most daring ideas and make exactly what will fit perfectly into your interior or will be suitable as a gift for a loved one. And not only the design you need, but also the size you like. So it’s up to you to decide whether you’ll drink tea at home from huge cups and saucers, like in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, or from delicate tiny ones, like Kirsten Dunst’s heroine in the movie Marie Antoinette. By the way, making dishes for the home with your own hands is also convenient because, by creating, say, a service in the same style, you won’t have to overpay for soup or dessert plates that you don’t need, and then think about where to store them in your small kitchen. You will make for yourself only those plates, bowls, cups and mugs that you need and will use.

Reason 2: environmental friendliness

Did you know that some factories still use hazardous materials, including lead and cadmium, when making tableware? Lead glazes are very beautiful; the content of this metal gives the product a special shine. The amount of lead, of course, is small, but using this glaze is strictly prohibited. It is not recommended to even store dry food in such containers, let alone pour hot soup into a bowl of lead. In some countries there is a law that prohibits the use of lead in foodware in any quantity. However, in Russia, China, Africa, and the countries of the Southeast region, there is often no strict control over manufacturers who neglect the issue of ethics and consumer health, since purchasing bright, glossy, lead-free glazes is much more expensive in large-scale production. So think ten times before you buy a cheap, bright cup or bowl. Why do you need dishes that poison you with harmful substances? By creating your own pottery, you can control which materials and glazes you use to create your plates and cups. By the way, ceramics can be bright and without colored glazes at all. There are natural colored clays: blue, green, black, and even ordinary light types have a beautiful natural color. In order for the products to be functional and not allow water to pass through, they must be covered with colorless or white glaze, but you can completely refuse colored glaze or choose safe, proven options.

Reason 3: replenishment

If suddenly careless guests or you yourself dropped your favorite mug and broke it, it’s okay. Your service will not suffer from this, because you can always make a couple more plates or cups. The same is true in the case of a new addition to your family - the birth of a baby or the marriage of a beloved brother. You can always make the missing set of dishes in a couple of hours. If you went on a trip, you probably noticed very interesting interior items - large vases, picture frames, candlesticks. Sometimes things are so beautiful, you just fall in love with them, but taking them with you from a trip is difficult and too troublesome. And why? It’s enough to take a couple of photos on your smartphone and, when you return from vacation, make copies of your favorite interior items or dishes, but in your own style and to suit your tastes and needs.

Photo: ceramics studio Ceramic Forest

Reason 4: quality

A fairly common story: you bought beautiful dishes from an online store, but they turned out to be of poor quality. The bright pattern on the mug began to peel off after washing, and knife marks appeared on the plates. When producing your own dishes, especially in a ceramic workshop under the supervision of a master, such excesses are excluded. First of all, you will be taught how to handle clay correctly and will be explained the sequence of the technological process that will make your dishes high-quality and practical. So you can put it in the microwave and wash it in the dishwasher without any problems. There is no risk of cracks or peeling paint.

Reason 5: saving the family budget

If you haven’t decided to produce a whole set, but just for the sake of interest, you took an introductory course on ceramics and made a couple of mugs, then even this knowledge will be enough for you to begin to understand tableware, types of clay and glazes, and the artist’s skill. If suddenly in a store a saleswoman begins to assure you that a pair of coffee costs 20,000 rubles because it is rare blue clay, then you can safely clarify whether it is natural or just an artificial color (a pigment mixed into ordinary white clay)? Dyed clay carries no value and you are paying solely for the brand. Expensive ceramics stores also like to use stamping. This means that the shape of the products is not unique: the patterns that are applied to them can simply be printed, and not drawn by the master. It’s another matter if you see on a market somewhere in the mountains of Andalusia a designer jug made of expensive materials, unique in shape and painted. You will immediately understand how much work the master has put into it and why it costs a decent amount. By the way, if the author of this work of art is suddenly exhibited in some gallery or museum of modern art, then the purchased jug can also be sold at a profit to collectors.

Reason 6: the issue with gifts has been resolved

Unique DIY ceramics are also exclusive gifts for family, friends and colleagues. You can personalize the dishes, leave initials on them, create any images and write wishes. For example, if you have unique lace left from your grandmother, then you can make an entire service with a unique print based on it. Thus, each family member will have a memory printed on a mug, plate, dish or teapot. Clay is an amazing living material that allows you to bring any idea to life. We use ceramic products every day, so these gifts are not only beautiful and unique, but also very useful for any person, regardless of their gender and age. By the way, it is not at all necessary to give dishes as a gift. You can create almost anything from ceramics. For example, floor tiles are an excellent gift for renovating the bathroom in your beloved mother’s apartment. Other interesting options:

ceramic handles that will transform an ordinary stamped wooden chest of drawers into a real work of art for the chest of drawers;
decorative sculpture, for example, for the garden;
pots for indoor or garden flowers;
tray;
whistles for children;
brooches for friends;
soap dish and other bathroom accessories.

Photo: ceramics studio Ceramic Forest

Reason 7: additional income

After you learn how to make dishes with your own hands, make all the necessary plates for your own home, and give gifts to your friends and colleagues, it is quite possible to monetize your favorite hobby. Create, say, an online store on Instagram and produce unique dishes in your own style to order. By the way, the most popular are craftswomen with a fairly narrow specialization, who make, for example, beautiful openwork cake stands, unusually shaped mugs, or fruit dishes with unique designs. Who knows, maybe one day you will make plates not only for your beloved man or relatives as a gift, but also for an entire restaurant.

Where to make your own dishes?

You can make your own cookware at home. To do this, you will need the necessary materials - clay, stacks, glaze, and so on. You can fire finished products at home; for this, there are furnaces that are suitable for a voltage of 220 W. But they are quite expensive - from 100,000 rubles. Therefore, at the initial stage it is easier to carry out firing in special kilns in ceramic workshops. They usually accept items not made by them for firing without any problems and for a very reasonable fee. Before purchasing materials for your home, we would recommend that you take an introductory course on working with clay from a specialist. Typically, ceramic workshops offer different options. Depending on the amount of information, such training will take you from 2 hours to several days and will cost from 2-3 thousand rubles, taking into account the cost of all materials. If you haven’t yet decided what exactly you want to make from ceramics, it makes sense to purchase a subscription to the workshop and attend master classes that interest you. It will be easier and cheaper than immediately taking long, expensive courses. Typically, such master classes are held for several people at once, so you have an original option for spending leisure time with a friend or loved one.

By the way, you can make all the dishes that you see in the photo in this article with your own hands already in the first lesson...

Ceramic vases, pots, tea sets, candlesticks, plates, whistles and even musical instruments - you can create all this yourself.

To learn how to make ceramics with your own hands, the main thing is desire. Before becoming a ceramicist, try making a simple trinket out of clay, and you will understand whether it is worth spending money on buying equipment for the work. If something doesn’t work out, it doesn’t matter, soak the scrap and make a new figure out of it; before baking, the product can be modified endlessly.

What is ceramics made from and where to get materials for work

Ceramics is fired clay, which is the main material in the work of a ceramist. In contrast, natural is of natural origin; it is extracted from the bowels of the earth without subjecting it to chemical or other types of processing.

Experienced craftsmen, in order to save money, extract and prepare raw materials themselves. This process involves several stages and is unlikely to deserve attention if you are just starting out and live in the city.

Clay for making ceramics must be greasy and free of pebbles and other debris, otherwise the craft will crack during baking. The finished mass is stored under certain humidity conditions.

Natural clay happens different types:

White is the most common, initially has a grayish tint, and after heat treatment it acquires a pleasant ivory shade.
Red – contains iron oxide, which gives the raw material a greenish tint. The main color of the raw material is brown, after firing the products become red. It lends itself well to modeling, does not crumble, and is ideal for sculptures and large items.
Porcelain – gray when raw and white after baking.
Blue - more often used in cosmetology and folk medicine.
Black or dark brown ceramic mass is the hardest clay, taking on an ivory hue after being kilned.

Also clays for ceramics classified by temperature processing for low-melting, medium-melting, refractory.

It is most convenient to buy ready-made pottery clay, focusing on the fraction size, color after firing at different temperatures and other characteristics and quality indicators. The cost depends on the manufacturer, packaging, texture. There are ready-made masses with additives for various tasks - modeling, molding, potter's wheel.

In addition to clay, you need glazes and enamels to coat products, pigments to give hand-made ceramics the desired shade, special additives to improve properties and heat treatment.

Used for gluing parts slip mass- a kind of glue made from diluted clay. If you simply connect the elements, they may fall off when heated. All this is sold in specialized stores for ceramists.

Methods for making ceramic products

There are several ways to transform clay into a beautiful ceramic product.

Modeling- the most affordable way to make ceramic products with your own hands at home. Souvenirs, sculptures, dishes, toys or other crafts are sculpted by hand, as if from plasticine, helping themselves with special stacks or improvised devices.

Pottery requires a rotating circle. With the help of this ancient craft, vases, jugs, pots, plates, and cups are still created today.

Cooldown– the easiest option for making ceramics for beginners. The work uses a plaster mold, into which soft clay is placed, and after hardening, the figured product is removed. Plaster molds are attractive because they absorb excess moisture, helping the clay product to harden and dry.

Casting– forms are also used here, but of a different type. The diluted clay is poured into molds, the blanks are dried, removed and painted.

Clay crafts gain strength only after firing - processing in pottery kilns at temperatures from 900 to 1300 degrees. Finished souvenirs are coated with acrylic paints or a special glassy glaze for ceramics. In the case of glazes, another firing is required after coloring.

If you want to get a natural shade, use milking - cover an unpainted baked ceramic figurine with milk in several layers and bake again at lower temperatures.

Pottery kiln - types and preferences

Previously, kilns for firing ceramics were furnaces dug in the ground and heated exclusively with wood. Modern pottery kilns come in gas, electric and wood. The latter, as a rule, are made by hand and are suitable for use in private households. In apartment conditions, it is most convenient to work with electric ovens; for larger volumes, you can choose a gas oven.

The metal body of such furnaces contains a refractory brick or other material that retains heat and is not afraid of heat. Ventilation holes are provided to remove moisture; the ceramic firing process is controlled by a program controller. Electric pottery kilns are not a cheap pleasure. The price depends on the manufacturer, volume, power.

There are models with vertical and horizontal loading and bell-type ones on sale. According to the type of location of the heating element, pottery kilns are divided into muffle and chamber kilns. IN muffle it is located around a container made of refractory material (muffle). In chamber heaters, the heater is located inside, which reduces heat loss and makes the equipment more economical.

With a little effort, you can make a kiln for firing ceramics at home with your own hands, using refractory bricks and something for the body, for example, an old washing machine.

Baking is the most important process that does not forgive mistakes. Sometimes even experienced craftsmen see a worthless defect instead of the expected masterpiece. The products are never taken out immediately; they must cool in the oven.

How to choose a pottery wheel

Pottery wheels are needed for sculpting round objects, so you don’t have to buy this tool right away. If you are just learning ceramics, start with sculpting or kneading. Circles come with manual, foot and electric control.

Recently, there has been a widespread tendency to return to ancient traditions, materials, customs, styles, and recipes. Apparently, a person gets tired of regular innovations, which, on the one hand, make his life easier, on the other, make it more artificial and move more and more away from the origins of our ancestors.

As one of the oldest materials, it has been used by man for centuries to make a wide variety of things and objects. Starting from utilitarian to decorative, created for beauty. Ceramic products are dishes, souvenirs, jewelry, interior items, sculpture, tiles... This list can be continued for a long time.

When we see ceramic products, we are enveloped in warmth and comfort. And indeed, the clay, or earthenware, or porcelain from which they are made carry certain positive charges that have a beneficial effect on us. These include tactile sensations (it is always pleasant to pick up a piece of ceramic tableware), the smell of baked clay, and an aesthetic appearance. Ceramic dishes filled with food whet your appetite, ceramic souvenirs, figurines, sculptures will fit into almost any interior, and ceramic roof tiles are the most durable and beautiful!

When you see something beautiful, sometimes you want to try it yourself. In this case, with ceramics, this is real and possible for everyone.

The simplest and most accessible material in ceramics is, of course, clay. It is sold for creativity in small briquettes. To create something bigger, you can look for a studio or school where masters work in this field and will teach you anything in this field.

The amount and consistency of clay depends on what you want to create. There are several types of clay "production":

	1. Modeling. Using your hands and auxiliary materials (wooden or plastic stacks), you create some kind of object. It can be either a small whistle or a large sculpture.
	2. . It is the process of creating vessels, plates, vases and any other objects by rotating on a pottery lathe. Starting from something the size of a thimble and Not ending with a tall floor vase. This is a slightly more complex form of pottery than just sculpting, so it's easier to take a pottery course first to learn the basics of this beautiful way of creating with clay.
	3. Cooldown. You have a plaster mold (which is also made by hand), for example, a flower, into which you “press” the prepared clay, and as it dries, you simply easily pull it out, and the object of the desired shape is ready.
	4. Casting. This method is more used in the production of earthenware and porcelain products, but it is also suitable for clay. Once again, prepared, purified liquid clay (slip) is poured into a gypsum mold (of a slightly different design), after a while the remaining clay that is not drawn into the gypsum is drained, and after a few hours the finished product is taken out, which can only be dried.

Each of these methods has many specific nuances that you need to know to achieve minimally positive results. However, here we will present the simplest and accessible option for making a real ceramic product.

What you need to create a ceramic product:

1. Clay . Soft, flexible, not sticky to your hands and not very dry. Clay is softened with water. If the lump is too dry and difficult to plasticize, you just need to add some water and knead well again. Place the raw clay on a dry surface (preferably plaster) and let it dry a little.

2. Fantasy . It could be some kind of small sculpture (turtle, man, abstraction), cup or vase. We give the desired shape and, if necessary, texture; you can use any auxiliary objects (spoons, toothbrushes, sticks, pencils).

3. Time . It is enough to simply leave a small product for several hours (sometimes all night) in a warm place, but avoid drafts and too hot radiators. It is better to first cover large items with a dry cotton cloth, and then, after a day, open them completely. This will allow the product to dry more evenly, and therefore avoid cracks. Cracks may form during very rapid drying.

4. Burning . We carefully take the completely dry product and carry it to the firing site. There are special kilns for firing in ceramic workshops. You will not be able to burn the product yourself at home in a stove up to 300 C. Since the temperature of the first firing is from 900 to 1300 C.

5. Decoration . The easiest way is to cover the resulting burnt product with acrylic paints. They are bright and do not wash off with water. There are also special glassy glazes for ceramics, which are applied after the first firing and require another firing. They are much more aesthetically pleasing, make the product more durable and will never wear off.