Throwing, Turning, and Playing with Coloured Slips

This week in the studio I set myself a small challenge: to try throwing on the high-seated pottery wheel. I was convinced I would love it, but the experience turned out to be much more difficult than I expected.

The main struggle was centering the clay. I couldn’t recreate the feeling of being directly over the wheel, and I really missed being able to anchor my elbow into my hip for support—something I rely on heavily when centering on a lower wheel. The clay itself was groggier than what I’m used to, which added another layer of difficulty. Still, I persevered, and by the end of the session I managed to produce a selection of thrown pots that I felt were worth developing further. I left them uncovered overnight to firm up.

When I returned the next day, I used the same wheel to turn the pots, and the experience was completely different. The wheel is much more agreeable for turning, and this part of the process was incredibly satisfying. I cut out handles from clay, gave them a quick blast with the heat gun, and attached them to two of the pots before moving on to the next stage.

Experimenting with Coloured Slips

With the forms ready, I turned to the coloured slips and decided to experiment with a technique inspired by the French potter Jean-Nicolas Gérard, whose film we watched a couple of weeks ago. I loved his loose, expressive approach—applying slip in a seemingly slap-dash way, scraping lines through it, and then adding another colour with the imprint of his thumb.

Before committing, I sketched each pot in my sketchbook and annotated the drawings with the slip colours I wanted to use. Then I began applying the slips, and the process was thoroughly enjoyable. There’s something very satisfying about the feel of slip brushing onto leather-hard clay—free, fluid, and surprisingly forgiving.

Once the surfaces were coated, I used the heat gun to speed up drying, then scratched lines into the slip and pressed on thumbprints of contrasting colours, just as I had planned. The pots immediately felt more alive—playful, expressive, and full of movement.

I’m genuinely excited to see how they look once they’re fired. At the moment, I’m leaning toward putting them through the gas kiln, hoping the reduction atmosphere will bring depth and richness to the slips.