Burnishing unfired clay pottery

Burnished ware by David Greenbaum

I recently came across the term 'beeswax pottery' and wondered what it meant. I discovered that it was a form of burnishing clay pottery to give it a smooth attractive mainly waterproof finish. Previously, to me, burnishing was just a term for the polishing of gold decoration used for the decoration of pottery.

It reminded me that you never stop learning with pottery. It is such a wide subject which continues to grow as new techniques are invented (or old ones re-invented!).

 History of clay burnishing 
Many ancient potters used burnishing to make their pottery harder and more waterproof before they discovered the use of glazes. Nowadays, modern potters choose to finish their work by burnishing because of the subtle, but beautiful finish achieved using this method. A burnished pot often has a soft, tactile quality all its own. However modern potters also need to know that this type of pottery should be used for decorative purposes only and not for ware intended for contact with food or drink.

Health and safety considerations are now a more important part of our modern life!

 So What is Burnishing and how is it done?

Burnishing is basically rubbing the surface of the clay piece until it becomes glossy. To achieve a satisfactory finish it often takes several hours for even a small pot. Skill and practice are required for this technique as it is highly influenced by the state of drying. The best stage to burnish is usually at the later stage of leatherhard. However many potters burnish the piece more than once to achieve the ultimate finish.

Working in very small areas, applying a little lubricant at a time to the piece, rubbing in different directions will gradually create a sheen. Care is needed as sufficient force is needed to compress the surface but not create a hole or flake. After firing the sheen is mostly retained and can be improved by polishing with beeswax or other types of wax.

 Some key factors to consider when using this technique include:-

  Choose your clay wisely
Burnishing requires either a very fine clay body, or fine clay engobe. Clay bodies which contains grog or sand are therefore not recommended for this technique. Low firing clay bodies such as earthenware are also recommended as higher firing bodies can give rough texture after firing.

Choose your shapes wisely
Pots with smooth flowing surfaces are easier to burnish and look so much better when fired. Complex shapes with sharp corners or surface features will be almost impossible to burnish properly.
  
Choose your tools wisely

The burnishing tools you use need to be smooth, hard and easy to hold. As burnishing is a very time consuming process comfort is an important factor and this is a personal thing. However most potters use the backs of spoons or polished stones for this technique. Some potters carry out a secondary burnish using smooth plastic or other materials.

Choose your burnishing oil wisely.
To aid the burnishing process the use of a burnishing lubricant is recommended. The lubricant allows the clay to densify and give an even smoother finish after firing. . Lubricants that are often used include vegetable oils, lard, and water. Although the choice of lubricant is subjective, water is the least recommended as there is a tendency for it to soak into the body or flake the surface as it is pressed.

Firing 
Firing of the ware after burnishing is important and can alter the texture of the surface significantly. Low firing clay bodies appear to work best.

 Post firing polishing 
 Firing gives the burnished ware a lovely, tactile soft feel. In ancient times, animal fat, oil, and wax were often used to make it more waterproof and to restore the pre-firing high gloss. Today, most potters use a  form of wax. Paraffin wax, candle wax, and beeswax, have all been used successfully. By applying the wax to a small area of heated ware and polishing a high sheen can be achieved.  The result is an outstanding piece of decorative ware that often looks as though it has been glazed but feels so different!

If you found this article of interest make sure you read about Terra Sigallata a method for making shiny ware without the polishing stages!

Of course more information and other technical articles on pottery and ceramics can be found at my website  The Potters Friend. Go now to sign up for my free  newsletter.

How to Choose a Pottery Class

The Benefit of Classes

Learning how to make pottery whilst enjoyable in its own right, can be enhanced by professional teaching and sharing of experience with other students.

Classes help people learn quicker and provide the right learning environment to enjoy the experience as well as make friends. This should not be underestimated as many frustrations will become apparent along the way..There are both studio potters who run classes in evenings and weekends as well as local colleges who run part time and full time courses.

Be clear on your needs

One question you need to ask yourself is "do I want to learn the practical skills such as throwing on a wheel or do I want to have a good scientific/artistic understanding?" Knowing this will help define your teaching requirement.

I recently read a debate about when should you call yourself a potter? It was interesting to note that most people shared my view that "you never stop learning in pottery". As pottery making is such a wide subject, you can be an expert in part of it and a mere novice in another area.

Therefore at which point you become expert or call yourself a potter is purely arbitrary.

This point is important as you need to find an expert teacher in the area of pottery in which you want to learn more. 

Choose the right teacher and class

Choosing the right pottery class is not always easy. For example, if you have an interest in learning the basics of  pottery making then joining a class learning about Raku firing is less useful. Similarly if you purely want to learn artistic skills such as hand painting of china as a hobby, there is no need to learn about slip casting of bone china. Clearly it is important to ask the right questions to make sure a class meets your specific needs.

Some helpful links

The following links and brief details of classes may be helpful. Unfortunately I cannot make recommendations as there are so many of which I am not personally familiar. Therefore when making an enquiry please ask for references from previous satisfied clients and ensure that the classes meet your needs etc

Good Luck and enjoy!

Pottery Classes in USA
Directory of Pottery Classes, Courses, Lessons, Events, Workshops, Free Classes, in USA
Pottery classes and Art courses in UK
Directory of Pottery,arts and crafts classes, workshops and painting holidays in Britain and Europe.

More details of individual classes and workshops can be found below:-

Details of UK pottery classes

More information and other technical articles on pottery and ceramics can be found at my website The Potters Friend. Go now to sign up for my free newsletter.

How To Teach Children about Pottery

Make it Fun
You make their first contact with pottery a fun enjoyable experience. Once they have the interest then you might want to add a little practical knowledge. Of course you want your children to be safe so only use safe materials and provide basic hygiene equipment, and instructions such as -wash your hands, and don't put anything in your mouth.

Where should you start?
Most children are familiar with playdo or plasticine. They have probably moulded these into shapes before. So let them use their imagination to form something that means something to them. Air drying or oven bake modelling clay products (suitable only for age over 3 years) similar to plasticine can be used which allow the pieces to be hardened into permanent shapes.

What next?
Once stimulated you might want to demonstrate how to roll a ball and make a sausage of clay and coil it to make a circular shape. Let them experiment making shapes themselves. Once adept at creating coils you might want to show them how to stack the coils to make a bigger shape. Plastic cutters such as used in cookery can be used to cut out shapes from a flattened out clay just like cutting shapes out of pastry.


What about painting colours?
Many of the items once air hardened or oven baked can be painted with acrylic paints. This allows children to learn a painting skill. The use of different size or shape of tip on brushes can help with children of different skill levels or ages. These skills can then be readily adopted and used with ceramic paints as the child progresses to making real pottery.

What about older children?
Older children need more to keep their interest so create a project and set them a challenge of making an item such as a coin tray. The same materials can be used as for younger children.

Alternatively get some real pottery clay and get them used to its feel and how water affects it and allows it to be smoothed or reprocessed when it dries out..  Of course this might become more messy but that's all part of the fun. Learn that large sections of clay crack on drying and why!

Sculpting tools can be used to  allow even more skills to be developed and create a personalisation of the work.

It is important to note that all items produced from the above information should be considered as purely decorative. Under no circumstance should they be used as food contact items.

Real pottery
In order to make real functional pottery special ceramic materials, glaze and colour need to be used as well as firing in a pottery kiln at very high temperatures (greater than 1000C). This requires some specialist knowledge and expertise. Pottery classes would be recommended at this stage to progress in a safe and friendly environment.

Acrylic paints and a domestic oven WILL NOT produce functional pottery.

More information about getting children to work with clay can be found at 'Teaching Tips for clay' Even more information and other technical articles on pottery and ceramics can be found at my website The Potters Friend. Go now to sign up for my free newsletter.