[Light music plays, screen reads 'Setting up the space'.]

Kerrie Docker

When you're working in the classroom with clay, it's really important to put newspaper on all the surfaces that you're going to be working on. The clay's really sticky. The newspaper just gives you a base that you can work on and it also makes it easier to clean up later on. Tubs are really handy to have in the studio.

So many uses. So, they're really good for storing your tools, storing your materials, storing pieces that are partially complete, so they need to be kept wet. So, the tub will help to keep them wet. Also stop other students being tempted to touch them.

It's really good if they can stack as well. That will minimise the space that you need in your classroom. Just make it easier when you're setting up and packing up to be able to bring them in and out of the classroom as well.

[NSW government logo.]

[End of transcript]

[Light music plays, screen reads 'The lifecycle of clay'.]

Kerrie Docker

I am going to show you the lifecycle of clay from very plastic straight out of the bag, where it's very malleable, very easy to change the shape. So, this is what we call just straight out of the bag plastic clay. The next one is when clay's leather hard. So, this is not as soft as the other clay, but still malleable. So, at this stage we can still join pieces, we can still bend them, but if we go too far, we'll end up with cracking. But it's just a little bit stronger and easier to join and also can have a little bit of strength about it. So, it's not going to slump. So, this is called leather hard. So, from plastic clay to leather hard, it just takes a little time, and that depends a lot on the weather. And also depends if the pieces have been covered in plastic.

So, on a nice warm, sunny day, it might only take an hour to get from nice and plastic to what we call leather hard. But if you are wanting to work in a classroom, you may use plastic clay, pop it in your tub, and then come back to the next lesson. And it should be still okay to work with at leather hard. So, again, depending on the weather, to get from leather hard to bone dry, which means it cannot have any more added to it. It's not going to bend. It's not going to change shape. Also can't be mended. If you've got slight cracks at leather hard stage, they can be mended. Once we get to the dry stage, white dry, we call bone dry, and you can tell it's bone dry, but you can see the colour, the difference in the colour change. So, it's the same piece of clay, but once the water's gone, it's gone a lot more white.

So, to tell if your clay is completely bone dry, so the colour change, can't bend, it feels dry to the touch. It's not cold. It's quite powdery. You can actually scratch the dry clay powder off the back of it and it will snap like that. So, that's why we can't mend if there's any breakages once it's at this stage. Unfortunately, if we get any breakages, that then can be recycled.

To get to completely dry, again, it depends on the weather. Minimal, probably a couple of days. If you're going to store your clay pieces in tubs, the tub just slows down the drying process. It won't completely stop it, but because of the lack of air flow, it just keeps it a little bit, it just slows it down. And it is beneficial to slow down the drying process if you have joins because they'll just be more strong. If you would like to slow down your drying process. We can also wrap things just in a plastic wrap. So, this can go into the tub as well, but it'll just mean that you can keep working on it in the classroom between. But to let it to get to bone dry, you must remove the plastic. After we get to bone dry, it's ready to be bisque fired.

So, bisque fired work has been fired to 1,000 degrees in the kiln, and it's quite firm. So, these ones will break. This one here is bisque fired. So, after a piece has been bisqued, remembering it's nice and strong, that's when we apply the glaze. It's then put into the glaze kiln and fired to glaze temperature, which will give us this here, which has a nice shiny surface. You can also see how much the clay has shrunk. So, these pieces actually started at the same size. So, there's a lot of shrinkage that happens in the glaze firing, but once it is at glaze, it's really quite strong. I still would advise, if students are taking it home, to wrap it in some bubble wrap or something, but it's also the clay is vitrified. It won't absorb any water anymore, and it's quite functional. At the end of your clay working process, you can recycle, reuse a lot of your clay. If the clay is still at plastic or at leather hard stage, it's really easy for to be reused in the classroom. If you just grab a little piece of plastic and put those pieces in there, maybe squirt with a little bit of water and wrap, then they can be used at another time. Once they get to this stage, it's a lot more involved. So, in the classroom, I probably just advise that you just reuse your plastic or your leather hard clay.

[NSW government logo.]

[End of transcript]

[Light music plays, screen reads 'Using the kiln'.]

Kerrie Docker

We are now in the kiln room. So, let's talk about stacking and firing the kiln for both a bisque or a glaze fire. In a bisque fire, it's okay to stack pieces inside each other as long as they're bone dry and they're not too thick, so pieces can be actually touching each other inside the bisque fire. As far as temperature rise in a bisque firing, we ramp or we increase temperature at approximately 100 degrees an hour.

We don't want to move too quickly because there are chemical changes in the clay. And also if there's any water content still in there, if it goes too quickly, it can boil and explode and crack your pieces. So, as I said, generally, around about 100 degrees an hour in the bisque firing. We leave the bungs or the little hole blockers out until approximately 700 degrees in a bisque firing, and this is to let all the moisture come out of the kiln. At about 700 degrees, replace the bungs because that helps the thermodynamics of the kiln, and we're not wasting energy by pumping air, warm air out through the the bung holes. With a bisque kiln, we are aiming to end at about 1,000 degrees Celsius. So, the kiln will gradually ramp up, and then it will turn itself off at around 1,000 degrees. Take about 10 to 12 hours to cool, and we like to let it get to around about 40 degrees before we open the kiln. That's really just a safety thing so nobody gets burned. And also if you cool too quickly, sometimes, it can be cracking.

So, if we just leave it at 40 before we open it, everyone should be happy. When we're firing a glazed kiln, we are aiming at about 1,200 degrees, which is what we call mid fire. That's a really good temperature for schools because it's a nice strong finish, but it also has less time than a stoneware firing. When we're firing a glaze, we are going to aim at a ramping or an increase of temperature at approximately 150 degrees an hour.

This is a little bit faster than a bisque firing, and that's because the clay has already been through one chemical reaction and it's actually quite much stronger, so it can handle that added temperature. When we're loading a glazed kiln, it's really important not to let any of the pieces touch.

As we mentioned in the bisque, they can be stacked. In a glazed kiln, nothing can be touching because that glaze, which is kind of powdery on the surface, it can chip off, or as well when it fluxes into glass at temperature, so at our 1,200 degrees that we're talking about, when it fluxes into glass, it will become fluid, and if it's touching something else, it will actually stick. And then as they cool, they'll stick together, and you won't be able to get it apart without it breaking. With a glaze firing, we're aiming at an end temperature of 1,200 degrees, so that will take a little bit longer than a bisque to cool down. Again, wait till it's about 40 degrees, and then open it up and see what you've created.

[NSW government logo.]

[End of transcript]

[Light music plays, screen reads 'Building technique pinch pot'.]

Kerrie Docker

Today we're going to be working on some handbuilding techniques. We're going to be working with pinch pots, coils, and slabs, and we'll also show how those three different techniques can be joined together. To begin with, we're going to do pinch pots. The clay can be just used straight out of the bag, whack it into a round, about the shape that you want to start with. Let's go. Okay. I like to just work with my thumb on the inside. It means that the edges don't go outwards, we want them to come in, so just straight in. Rotating in around on your hand.

So, yeah, just rotate the piece around on your hand using your thumb, bringing it up with the outside fingers, and keep rolling the clay in. If you start working like this, your pieces will get too wide, so we want to keep it nice and high. Just using my thumb on the inside. Round and round, going down to the base. So, you can get yourself a nice base shape in fairly quick time. You can maybe make a couple of these pieces and join them together later on, but it's best to form them first and maybe let them firm up a little bit before you try to add anything onto that. Nice and flat on the base. We're trying to have the wall thicknesses maybe about one centimetre, not thinner than that, or you won't be able to work on it later on. It'll be a bit too fine. So, you can see in fairly quick time, you can get yourself a decent base shape to work with. I might set that one down, and we might show how we can work with that later on. So, there's your nice pinch pot. Here's another shape that I made earlier. This one was just more round, straight up and down, and we'll work that with that one later on.

So, we're going to work on joining two pinch pots today. And I did make these pinch pots earlier just so they were a little firmer, better to join, but the clay's still quite soft. I can manipulate it. But yeah, I worked on the insides to give us two nice shapes here. And the tops are not regular, but we can work it out, so that's the best way to fit them together. The first thing I'm going to do is just quickly straighten off those edges a little bit. It doesn't have to be too flush, just so that the flatter surfaces will join together better than the curved surfaces. So, let's see where they're going to fit together the best. That's round about it. So, there's still some air gaps there, but we can easily close those over. So, I'm going to use vinegar to score the surfaces.

Give them a good scratch. Okay, so then line them up as best they're going to fit. Where did I have that? That looks like about right We're going to do a bit of a wiggle and jiggle just to help that join a little bit better. And then using our best tool, our hands, to roughly join them. It's then good to bring in maybe a little coil of clay. Just press it into the areas. Just using your fingers to start with. So, what we've done now is we've created an airlock so we can really manipulate this clay form without it distorting, because the air inside will make sure that it doesn't collapse in. So, use your fingers to a degree, but then you can always bring another tool in to help to smooth that join. I'm not going to work too long on this one. It's really just to show you how to join the basic two pinch pots together. But like I talked about that airlock, we can then bring in some more, bring in the cavalry and actually change the shape.

So, you can spend quite a bit of time changing the shape. And as long as you keep that airlock, it's nice and strong. So, this is one that I made earlier as well. So, you can see I've got a base, so it's nice and firm, but I've smoothed the edges and just given myself a nice oval shape. This one here, so instead of making the initial pinch pot into an egg shape, I've made two more boat shaped ones and I've joined them together. So, this is joined sort of through here and I've just added one on top of the other. And I actually did quite a bit of whacking on this one to give myself like the little bit pointy at the top, and it certainly much narrower at the top than it is at the base.

So, what I'm going to do with this one, I mean it can have additions of clay or subtractions. What I'm going to do is just cut some nice shapes out. So, I've got the airlock, but now I'm just going to lose that airlock. So, from now on, I can't do too much changing of the shape or it may be not strong enough to hold. Remove some pieces, you can make quite decorative. And you might like to bring some carving in as well.

So, let's join these up. So, many options. So, what we do now is we let that dry till it's white dry and dry enough to be fired in the kiln. And because I've cut these pieces out, there's no longer an airlock, so we won't get the air trapped in there and cause cracking later on. But so many options, adding, subtracting, starting with a pinch, and joining the pinches together.

[NSW government logo.]

[End of transcript]

[Light music plays, screen reads 'Building technique – coils'.]

Kerrie Docker

When you're wanting to make coils, just grab yourself not too big a piece of clay into kind of like a sausage, a sausage shape, I guess. Just form it basic.

Now, really, really important when you're wanting to roll coils, always working on newspaper because the clay will stick to the desk. Otherwise, instead of just a little short roll like this, you'll end up with sharp edges. Must use the hole of your hand from fingertip through to the palm, the bottom of your palm. And that way, you'll get a nice even coil. Once it gets long enough, you can work with both hands, maybe roll from one and to the other. See how we're getting a nice round coil there. There's not too many rough edges. If I was to do the same thing and just try using short movements, you end up with a flat, not a nice, round coil. So, we want to go right through the coil, all the way from fingertip to the bottom of your palm. It's probably a good idea to form a few coils and we can put them down and use those later on.

So, you can use your hands to grab it off the clay or otherwise you're cutting wire. That one's a little bit big. Roll it round in your hands just like a sausage. It doesn't have to be too perfect to start with. And then again, nice, long, all the way from fingertip to the bottom of your palm, working from one end of the coil to the other. So, we work all the way from fingertip to the bottom of your palm in a rolling motion so that you get a nice long, even coil. Get the other hand involved as well, starting from one end and working all the way to the other. And these coils are, again, going to be about one centimetre thick, like we talked about with the pinch pot. You can go finer, but it just gets more tricky later on and more prone to breaking.

So, when we are working with coils, really easy to manipulate. You can just, to form the base of a piece, maybe just roll one up. So, we've got just a nice little coil, sometimes nice to be able to actually see the pattern of the coil. So, to join these, I'm only going to join them on one side. So, that's a really nice shape there. So, I'm going to turn it over and just, softly with my fingers, not pressing too hard because if I press too hard, I'll lose that pattern on the back. It is also good to, when you're joining, move both ways.

So, press it back the other way. The most important tool when you're working with clay is your hands. It's amazing what you can do with your fingers. So, now, we have a really pretty side and this one here is going to be the inside of the piece. So, once we've got a nice, smooth inside, remembering we've got a beautiful pattern on the bottom, I'm going to put that down on the table and we're going to join another coil so that we get some height to the piece. Now, when we're joining two pieces of clay, it's really important to use your vinegar and toothbrush. Vinegar is a really important tool for us to join two pieces of clay. The chemical makeup of the vinegar just helps the clay to adhere together. So, what we're going to do is use the toothbrush to, the toothbrush roughs up the surface a little as well and that gives us more surface area to join. And I'm going to work from one end of the coil. I'm not pressing down too hard at the moment, just laying the piece in place. Going to grab some more vinegar with the next level and tiny bit more.

So, this is a really good way to get some height in your piece. And because we really like this pattern of the coil on the bottom, I'm going to keep the pattern of the coil on the outside and just join on the inside of the piece. So, supporting on the outside to join those coils together on the inside, and just work all the way around.

So, you get a nice smooth service on the inside, but you've got the pattern of the coil on the outside. Now, generally, I would move this piece so we get some good height like this one here. But I'm just going to show you how you might like to join a different shape of coil, just a really tiny one on the top. So, this is just going to be tiny, so a little piece. And I'm going to join these two pieces again with some vinegar on the end, and just using my fingers to smooth it all together so you can't see where that clay's been joined. Nice little ring down here. And we're just going to join this. This is quite a random join, but it's just really to show the options. I always like to say, give it "A wiggle and a jiggle," because that just helps them stick together. There we go. Obviously, this is not a complete piece, but it shows you how you can build a bit of height with your coils and then maybe add some decoration on the top.

[NSW government logo.]

[End of transcript]

[Light music plays, screen reads 'Building technique – slabs'.]

Kerrie Docker

So, the next technique we're going to work on is using slabs. I have prepared some earlier. The clay, it's good to get a nice flat piece. So, let's just take that off. And get ourselves, I still like to work it in my hands first. So, really, really important again to use newspaper when you're working with clay. Slabs will always stick to the desk. So, make sure you are working on paper and also that you're rotating. So, if you keep flattening it out on the paper, it will actually eventually get too wet and stick to the paper. So, picking it up, putting it down.

Now, we're going to work with just a rolling pin. Like with the coils, roll the whole way through. Pick it up, turn it over, rolling all the way as well. Pick it up, turn it over. Okay and because it's hard to get the thickness all the same, what I'm going to do is use just two bits of wood. And as long as they're the same thickness, that should work for you. We're going to put them down here. Put the clay in between and we're going to use the rolling pin. And now, these guide sticks will make sure that our slab ends up being the same thickness, all the way through. Now, when you first roll your slab, it's quite wet and you can still work with it and join it, but it's much harder to work with. I prefer to put that one aside and work with some that I prepared earlier.

So, this one, it's what we call leather-hard. So, it's firmed up a little bit, but it's still not dry. So, I'm just going to put these boards out of the way. I'm just going to show you how to join slabs onto each other. We're going to bring the vinegar back into it again, just rough the surface. We also need to do it to the other surface. I'm just going to join this one on here. So, let's put some vinegar in here. And simple as that, remember the wiggle and jiggle. Again, anytime I join two pieces of clay, give it a bit of a wiggle, pressing quite firmly down together.

Okay, that's one. And I'm just going to join this one later onto the back here. So, I need to join across the bottom here and up the side. So, let's put some more vinegar on there. When I'm joining slabs, I like to always put the slabs that are coming upwards on top of the other one. If you try to join onto the side here, it's just going to be a weaker join. It's much better if you can join on top, so, you'll have a stronger join later on. So, I've put some vinegar down here and here where we're going to join. And I'm going to put it on here and line this side up. I haven't trimmed off the edges yet, because I prefer to get it all joined up together. And then, we can get a really nice line on the edges.

So, remember that wiggle and jiggle. And I'm also pressing these two guys together and a bit of a wiggle and jiggle here. Now, if I'm making a box form, I'm going to put another piece on this side and this side. And I probably would've cut the tops off to a more even level before now. But at the moment, I'm just showing you the joining techniques. There is some weakness in those joints. So, just inside here where it's not going to be seen, we can grab a little bit of clay and make a nice fine coil. Just press it along those joins and use your finger to smooth that down. See how that's just creating some more strength in that join there and you can't really see it anyway, but it's just going to make it a lot stronger later on.

So, now, we're going to go up here, the same and pressing really firmly into there. So, it's almost invisible, but it just makes it so much stronger. Okay, so, we've got three really nice strong joins there. I'll show you the other side. So, I haven't put any coils on the outside, just because that's going to be more visible. But the strength on the inside should hold it. As I said earlier, if I was producing a box form, I would've had these top pieces cut to the right size. But now, I'm just going to show you, I find it's better to actually join the base on and then you can get a really good line down the side to give you the edge. And across here.

Then, you can just take that excess clay off and just use your fingers. Now, this join here, using your fingers. So, as you can see, we've got some nice strong joins there, just along this side. And that's where we joined the height and right across the bottom there. The joins on the inside, nice and strong as well. That's a good base for a slab-built form.

[NSW government logo.]

[End of transcript]

[Light music plays, screen reads 'Ceramics technique – glazing'.]

Kerrie Docker

When setting up for glazing, it's really important to have all your materials, everything out ready. I'm going to be using brushes today, so it's really important to make sure that your brushes are all clean. You're not quite sure what colour the other person who used it before you was using. So, all of your brushes. I've got a banding wheel here to assist because I can turn my piece easily. We're going to show you two forms of decorating your piece.

So, first we're going to work with glazes. So, really important when working with the glazes to make sure they are very well mixed and continue to mix them while you're working because they will settle out. So, we're going to give this one a really good shake. And the instructions are usually on the glaze, so make sure you read those. Usually two to three coats is what you need. So, it's good to work with a brush with a long bristle. It will load up the clay. Because this clay has been bisqued, it's very porous and it will suck the water out of the glaze really quickly and it will dry instantly. But we want to have as much loaded up into our brush as we can. So, give it a good, so it's quite loaded up there. And, just rotating both the brush and the piece.

So, usually two to three coats of these, but it will instruct you on the packaging. Now if you don't have a banding wheel, that's okay as well. Just in your hand. See how it's drying so quickly? It's because the bisque clay will absorb the water out of the glaze and then the glaze is on the surface. So, as I said, generally two to three coats. Now that this top coat is dry, I can go straight back to that and put its second coat on. And continue until the whole surface is covered and it's all covered with two to three coats. Nice long brush strokes. And of course we're going to glaze on the inside as well. We won't do that today. So, you'll notice that once the glaze is on the piece it's quite powdery. So, you don't want to rub that or rough it on anything. It's really, really important that we don't get glaze on the base. If accidentally you manage to get a little tiny bit on the base, just a wet sponge can wipe it, wipe it off.

Now the reason we don't want any of the glaze on the base is because when that's in the kiln, it will actually flux to a glass and it becomes liquid and then it will fuse onto the shelf. So, really making sure that there is no glaze anywhere on that base. So, that's working with coloured glazes. There's another way to work. We can work with what we call under glazes. And what under glazes are is they're actually just coloured clay. And then after they've been applied, you would generally apply a clear glaze over the top.

One of the good things about using under glaze is the colours are really true to form. So, pretty much what we see here is what we'll get out of the kiln. Alternatively, with our coloured glazes, this one is actually called a blue chun. And you can see now that it doesn't look blue, but when that has completed its firing process, it will actually be blue. So, it's quite hard to see from here to there what you're going to end up with. Alternatively with under glazes, which under glazes are just really coloured clay. And then you would put a clear shiny glaze over the top so that the colour comes through. So, I'm going to use different brushes in each colour. With under glazes it's actually okay to mix the colours. So, if you need a different colour, you can actually mix them before you use them on your piece. Alternatively, with coloured glazes, they should never be mixed. They have different chemical makeups and doubling up or trying to mix the colours can often have pretty catastrophic effects and often make it too runny as well.

So, with these ones, don't be frightened. Nice green colour. What have we got here? We've got a nice pink. So, it's, yeah, it's just coloured clay. Again, we use brushes with nice long bristle so it can really load up. Because as I was saying, the bisque form will just suck the water out and then the coloured clay is actually what's on your surface. What else have we got here? Let's get some black. The options are endless. Also, if you accidentally, uh oh, got that there, it's easy to remove with your damp sponge again.

So, yeah, the options are endless. As I said, you can mix your colours. You might like to, you know, get your primary colours to start with and mix whatever you like to work with. And often I'll come back with a darker colour of black over the top. After this is dry, what we then do is apply a clear glaze over the top. Now the clear glaze will look like it's got a white film on the surface, but once it's in the kiln it will flux out and the colour will come shining through.

So, just two options of glazing your pieces with coloured glazes and then with under glaze, with a clear glaze over the top.

[NSW government logo.]

[End of transcript]

[Light music plays, screen reads 'Combining building techniques'.]

Kerrie Docker

So, we've been working with slabs and we've already shown you how to work with pinch pots and coils.

Now what we're going to do is put all those things together and show you how you can use all the three techniques to make one piece. So, I'm going to put that one aside. It's also okay to prep all these pieces beforehand. It's okay to roll your coils, to roll out your slabs, maybe make the base of your pinch pot earlier, and they can be wrapped in plastic. These ones here, these are some slabs that I've prepared earlier. And it's just glad wrapped, just wrapped together so that later on, I can put those pieces together.

So, this one here is a pinch pot that I made earlier so that it's a little bit firm. The clay's still malleable. We can still work with it, but it's just going to be strong enough to add a coil onto. And because the top of the pinch pot's a little bit of an irregular shape, I just want to flatten that off so that it will accept a coil a little bit better. Just taken just the top of that pinched edge off. Let's move those pieces out of the way. And now we're going to bring the vinegar back into it. We're going to score the surface, bit of roughing it up. You can see it, when you use the toothbrush, it actually gives you more surface area to join with. So, that's what we're aiming at. So, the toothbrush is good to apply the vinegar, but what it also does is increases the surface area with each little ridge. So, it gives you more joining.

So, it's going to be a better join. I just going to put this piece down. So, I prepared this coil earlier, just adding it onto the top. Just break it off with your finger. Join those two together. Now I might make like to make a feature of that coil on the outside, so I'm just going to run that so it's sitting a little bit better on the outside. But because it's not joined very well yet, it could also could come off later on. So, what we're going to do, we'll keep that pattern on the outside, but we're going to join the soft clay of the coil down inside, just smoothing it around. So, you see how we can still have the decoration of the coil on the top, but we've done a really nice join on the inside so that it's not going to crack off later on. When pieces of leather hard, so the clay's still soft but it's a little firm, it's a good time to spend a little bit of time finishing off. So, there may be some little cracks that can be rubbed over or you might like to use a tool to smooth the edges a little bit. It's also a time where more things can be added or we can actually scratch away at the clay. Let me just show you on our slab form that we made earlier. Let me just show you, it's easy to add some decoration as long as we're using some vinegar. And maybe, let's maybe add a couple of pieces here, just rolling in my hands. It's also a time when you can scratch into the clay because it's still soft, let's go.

So, that's just three really easy hand building techniques that can be used and also combined together: the pinch, the coil, and the slabs can all be used to form any kind of project that you might like to put together in the classroom. Now we're going to have a look at some project ideas. We're going to work on building this slab-built box here. So, the first thing I would do is cut myself some templates. So, over here, I've got a base and a side, which is going to be slightly shorter than the base, and an end. So, when all those pieces come together, they're going to give me the pieces that I need for a complete box. So, earlier, I rolled my slabs and cut out my pieces. I recommend when you are making a box form, to cut all of your pieces out so that you have them all sitting here. And these pieces are leather hard. So, I did roll them earlier, so they're a little bit firm, but they've got a bit of movements still in them.

So, once I've got all my pieces, I'm going to join those together to form my box. So, here's one I prepared earlier. And when I constructed it, I had it on its side. But what I'm going to do to complete the project is just bring it onto its top like here. The joins are really nice and firm. So, at the moment, we have an airtight container as well. So, it's pretty strong because the air won't let any of the sides move. So, what I would like to do with this piece is make an addition. I'm going to use a coil that I made earlier and I'm going to attach that to the top and bring it down the side of the piece. And then, we're going to cut the top off. So, when we're joining, always using our vinegar and toothbrush. Just think I might roll, let me show you, roll this coil a little. Let's see the proportions. That looks okay. I'm going to bring it down the side. Let's make it a little bigger, on the top, and we're going to roll it down the side. Now where I join it on, I'm going to use my vinegar again. Score the surface and let's see where it's going to come. It's going to come down this side here, a little more. I'm going to add that onto the top. Give it a wiggle and jiggle to give a really good join here.

Curl it around a little. And let's just bring this coil thing back in at the end. Let's roll this bit as well. I just need a little more vinegar. Okay, so I do need to press this into the vinegar. Give me some strength in here. And also just to make that join a little stronger, just a tool with a bit of a point on the end to run down the side so it doesn't change the shape of the coil, it just joins the clay. And the same around here, and the same around here. And we can come back with our fingers. Just a really nice join around there. And you can add any kind of additions on, subtractions you can cut out the sides. What we're going to do now is actually cut the top off and we're going to make it in a regular shape so that it will always come back onto the same side. And this bit here will also join back on together. This bit's a bit scary.

Okay, we just have our cutting wire and I'm going to start on this side, as I said, up and down so that you've got a shape that you can sit it back onto. And here we go. There we go. And it will go back, hopefully into the same spot. So, it's quite decorative. You can see the cut is quite decorative as well, a bit special. So, now that we've completed our project, it's time to let it dry. Really important to leave the lid on while it dries because the clay will slightly move and warp and slightly move as it dries. It will shrink.

So, if you leave the top on, they should all stay together. If I took that off to let it dry, you know, they might slightly change. And then, it won't fit back on. So, yeah, dry slowly, maybe under plastic, but really important to let it dry on the top. Also equally important to when you fire it, fire it with the lid on as well. And that will just make sure that the shapes all stay together and they'll fit together again in the end. But yeah, so many options for a slab project.

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