Documents-Handouts
Below are links to a variety of documents and handouts in PDF form. Click on any title to access the PDF document, which can then be downloaded to your computer. The handouts are available for your own personal use or to pass out to students if you teach, with the clear understanding that most of them are my words and my work. They can be reproduced in multiples and distributed only with proper attribution to the author. If you have questions or comments, please email me.
General Information
- How to Write an Artist’s Statement
- A Simple Guide to Photographing Your Artwork
- A Simple Guide to Cropping an Adjusting Digital Images of Your Artwork
- Tongue-Twisters: Developing Vocal Mechanics for Speaking, Singing, and Acting
- Art/Sculpture/Design Vocabulary
- How to Critique
- Looking at 3-D Work
- Naturalism versus Abstraction
- The Issue of Abstraction: Things to Consider
- Web Links to Kinetic Sculpture Videos
- Build Your Own Portable Outdoor Shower
Food
- Vince’s Homemade Kimchi Recipe
- Vince’s Excellent Black Bean/Cheddar Cheese Dip Recipe
- Vince’s Utopenci Recipe (Czech Pickled Bar Sausages)
- Frank Pitelka’s Potato Salad Recipe – my dad’s excellent potato salad. Of course you can make it without the bacon and bacon grease, but it won’t be his recipe.
- My Adaptation of Frank Pitelka’s Potato Salad Recipe – without the bacon grease and tomatoes, with Dijon mustard added, and with some other tweaks.
Course Syllabi
These are generic versions of the syllabi I used during my career at Tennessee Tech University. They are offered as guidelines for possible format and content for your own syllabi.
- Three-Dimensional Design
- Intro to Clay
- Clay on the Wheel
- Intermediate Handbuilding
- Advanced Clay Studio – Ceramic History
- Advanced Clay Studio – Surface Design
- Advanced Clay Studio – Clays and Glazes
- Advanced Clay Studio – Kilns and Firing Theory
- Independent Study in Clay
Miscellaneous Ceramics Handouts
- Clay Studio Safety
- NCECA Conferences 1966 to 2024
- Maintaining Studio Equilibrium
- Tapered Cork Sizes, Dimensions, and Corresponding Vessel Openings
- In Ceramics, “Handmade” Still means “Hand”-Made – David Hendley’s excellent 1999 article from Ceramics Monthly
- Cremation Urns for Pets and People
- Joining, Attaching, Repairing, and Mounting Clay Work
- A Practical Guide to Clay Studio Design, Setup, and Operation
- Buying a Proper Respirator for Dust Protection
- Animal Imagery in Contemporary Ceramics
- David Shaner: A Quest Worth Sharing, by Jack Troy
- My Work. My Way. Fifty Years in the Studio – Harlan House’s free PDF of his 2019 book.
- Ceramic Skills Inventory
- Glossary of Ceramic Raw Materials
- Glossary of Ceramics Terminology
- Japanese Terms for Teas and Teabowls
- On Productivity
- Joe Bennion on Community and Commerce
- Online Clay Galleries and Art Museums
- Tea and Teapots: History and Info
- Things Potters Make
- All About Plaster
- #1 Pottery Plaster – US Gypsum Data Sheet
Clays and Claybodies
- Ron Roy on Testing Clays – Article by Canadian potter, glaze wizard, and co-author of the book, Mastering Cone-6 Glazes. For many years, Ron did the clay and materials testing for Tucker Ceramics, the primary ceramic supplier in Canada. If you have questions about anything in the article, please email Ron.
- ACC Clay Recipes and Soldner Batch Amounts
- Understanding Flocculation and Deflocculation in Claybodies
- Claybody Components
- Common Types of Claybodies
- What is Clay?
- What Makes Moist Clay Behave as It Does?
- Why Does Clay Become Hard and Permanent in the Firing?
- Making Paper Clay
- Mixing Clay by the Slurry Method
- Testing Clays and Claybodies
- The Stages of Clay
- Classification of Clays
- Green-Packing Density and the Effects of Particle Size on Clay Performance
Throwing and Handbuilding
- Handbuilding: General Guidelines and Suggestions
- Pinch Construction
- All About Coil Construction
- Coil-Construction Guidelines
- Rolling Slabs: Platelet Grain Structure and Clay Memory
- Rolling Out Slabs By Hand with a Rolling Pin
- Making Soft-Slab Cups and Boxes
- Making Stiff-Slab Covered Boxes
- Clay Sculpture – Building Solid
- About Covered Jars
- Platters Thrown and Handbuilt
- Making Teabowls, by Shoji Hamada
- Designing Lids and Galleries for Covered Vessels
- Making Better Handles on Mugs, Cups, and Pouring Vessels
- Slab-built Tableware – Making and Using Foamboard Slump Molds
- Theory and Mechanics of Teapots
- Basic Throwing
- Centering and Coning the Clay
- Critical Points in Throwing
- Throwing – Cross-Section Images
- Throwing on Canvas Bats as an Alternative to Rigid Bats
- Clay Weights for Thrown Forms
Surface Decoration
- Amaco Velvet Underglaze Sample Chart – This chart is from the Amaco website. Note that each tile is glazed over half the surface, and with each underglaze color the three samples are fired to cone-05, cone-5, and cone-10.
- Stages in Surface Development
- Surface Design – Things to Consider
- Exploring Surface Relief
- Making and Using Bisque Stamps and Rollers
- Faceting – a Clayart post written by John Baymore in 2002
- Colored Clay Techniques
- Slip Consistency Chart
- Slip Recipe Chart
- Flocculation and Deflocculation of Decorating Slips
- Slip-Decorating Techniques
- Mishima and Wax Mishima Slip Decorating Techniques
- STA Decorating Slip
- Super-Refined Terra Sigillata
- Sanding Pots and Applying/Polishing Terra Sigillata
- Brushing Glazes – Advice from Bailey Pottery Supply
- Surface Design – Engobes and Underglazes
- Mason Underglaze Recipe
Glazes and Glazing
- Glazes I Use In Cone-7 Soda Firing – click here to see images of these glazes on my pots.
- ACC Stock Cone-6 Glazes
- ACC Stock Cone-10 Glazes
- ACC Stock Cone-10 Glaze Descriptions
- Applying Glazes
- Guidelines for Glazing
- Surface Design – Patinas and Glazes
- Wax-Alumina Resist – Recipe and Use
- Accurately Measuring and Reproducing Glaze Density
- An Easy Test for Glaze Fit
- Converting Glaze Recipes to Standardized Form
- Common Glaze Faults
- Peter Sohngen’s Article on Cristobalite
Studio Tools and Equipment
- Clay Studio Tools: Buy, Make, Find, Improvise
- How to Build an Effective Two-Stage Sink Trap
- Buying a Proper Respirator for Dust Protection
- An Inexpensive and Effective Homemade Spray Booth
- Buying Spray Equipment and an Air Compressor
- The Bench Grinder as an Essential Piece of Studio Equipment
- Selecting Appropriate Tools for Mixing Slips and Glazes
- How to Use a Triple-Beam Balance for Weighing Glaze Materials
- Torches and Heat Guns – Using Locally-Applied Heat to Stiffen the Clay
- Using a Gravity-Feed HVLP Spraygun
- How to Make Throwing Bats
- Canvas Bats as an Alternative to Rigid Bats
- Build a Power Wheel from an Automobile Transmission
- A Simple Steamer for Bending Vine or Wood Handles
- Bluebird Pugmill Instructions
- Building the Harry Davis Pugmill
- Soldner Mixer Instructions
- How to Make a Slicer for Colored Clay Murrini
Kilns and Firing
- Ransome Burner Catalog
- Gas Kiln-Log Form
- Kiln Sign-Up Form
- Loading a Bisque Firing
- Loading a Glaze Firing
- Firing an Alpine Updraft Kiln
- Firing the ACC Downdraft Kiln
- Firing the L&L Easy-Fire Electric Kilns
- Firing the Skutt Manual Kiln-Sitter Kiln
- Orton Cone Chart
- Making and Using Cone Packs
- Kiln Shelf Options, by Bill Schran
- Storing and Drying Advancer Shelves
- Hoggama General Info
- Pit and Sagger-Firing Suggestions from Clayart
- Aluminum Foil Sagger Firing, by Ken Turner
- A New Approach to Long-Fire Results, by Dick Lehman
- Bonfire Firing
- The Salt-Glaze Process
- Salt and Soda Firing
- Loading and Firing the ACC Soda Kiln
- Soda Kiln Quick Reference
- Building A Crossdraft Soda Kiln
- Soda Kiln Burner System
- Building a Sprung Arch
- AP Green Sprung Arch Chart
- Homemade Insulating Castable for Use Over a Brick Sprung Arch
- AP Green Mizzou Castable Spec Sheet
- AP Green Mizzou Castable Instructions
- Building a Hinged IFB Kiln Door
- Low-Pressure Gas Orifice Chart
- Baso Valve Burner Safety Systems
- Controlling Atmosphere in Fuel Kilns
- Gas Burner Flames – Shape and Color
- Controlling Crystallization in the Cooling Glaze
- Gas Line Pressure – Variations and Measurement
- Understand Kiln Firing Ranges