Window Watchers (June 1, 1954)

hi window Watchers you know what's up here today you know what I've got my hands it's really not a mud pie it's really some clay and I thought we would talk about using a different kinds of clay today and how to mix it up and some different things that we could make now this clay that I have right here is a kind of clay that comes in a powder all powered up just like fine dust really and then you mix it with water and make whatever you want to make out of it and then if you leave it sit outside or just in the room really we don't dry until it's just as hard as a brick back and then you can paint it with either watercolors or temporary namm well then shellac it and you can use them for ever so many things there's only one thing to remember that this kind of clay will hold water and so you couldn't make a flower pot out of it or a dish to put water and flowers in but you may have seen some of this clay that never gets hard that has some sort of oil or plastic base to it so that it always stays soft like this but that isn't the kind of clay that I have today as i said i have some clay that's in powder form not i'm going to set these pieces that i have already mixed right over here but i'm going to show you how to mix up this powdered clay first of all i might mention that i have my apron on again because this can be rather message but this potters clay you can get at hobby shops apps art or paint stores and art stores and it's not very expensive at all and it comes in a great big sack and then perhaps you can see me shake some of it out here it's a very fine dirt I need to pour this dirt into a pan and add the water to it now you don't want to start with the water and then try and add the clay you put the clay in the pan like this and then pour out just a little bit of water at a time just kind of sprinkle it all over there like that and then mix it up and if you watch you can see that the water forms into little balls see these little balls that are forming here in some places the clay isn't there in the fine dust stage anymore it's forming into it small little falls see just like really when your mother's making pie dough well he'll be a little bit more water than that because that's not all going to stick together yet I can take some of it and squeeze it here and that's about as much as we have but it's going to fall right apart again so if i take that's more water then again I might say this is rather messy so if you have a ring on or bracelet or anything you might want to take it off before you start doing all this of course this will wash right off it's just like playing in the dirt making mud pies really except that it will get very hard and you can do other things with them and there's no sense of running and washing your hands just as soon as they get dirty because they're going to get dirty again that's the fun part about working with clay it just be as messy as you want to with your hands and it always wash right off and it's part of the job too but then we can pick up these little pieces from the bottom of the pan here and I have it more or less forming into a big ball well then comes the job of working it with your hands and it's very squishy right now and if it's to squish you can add some more the dry powdered clay but then you can work it press it flatten it out pinch it and squeeze it through your fingers and instead of washing your hands off it's only one way to get them get some of this excess clay and that's by scraping them off with your other fingers then you work with it for a while and it will get into the condition so that you it's not so squishy and slimy and wet anymore some of the water has evaporated and some of its worked into your own hands and then it will be so that you can work it and you can make just many different things with it but I thought today we would talk about making a different kinds of pottery you know potteries a little bit different when it comes to making that out of clay then it would be if we were modeling what i mean by modeling by making a figurine of some sort or perhaps making someone's head and shoulders well this clay should be worked with just a little bit more before it's ready to use so I'm just going to leave it right here in the pan and set it aside and bring back these other pieces these other balls of clay that I have that are already prepared but before I put them right down here on the table I'm going to take a few sheets out of them eggs just terrible and lay them down on a table first and then the clay won't get all over the table you see don't use a newspaper though because the newspaper is very porous you put it down on the newspaper and it soaked right up and you have newspaper mixed in with your clay but you know a magazine pages are slick aren't they so it doesn't soak in quite so much well one of the ways of making a bowl is forming your clay into a round ball like this after you've worked it up enough and sticking your finger right down in the center just about like that now these are three of the simple ways of doing it people that make pottery for a living have what they call a potter's wheel now this wheel turns the clay around for them we don't have potter's wheel we just have to do it by hand and then with one finger in this hole and the other one here on the outside we can turn it while we're turning it we're pinching it and every time it cracks we can push it back together fit and pinch it some more and as we keep going around you'll notice that the hole is getting bigger and bigger see an after it's about so big then you begin to decide or figure out just what shape you want your bone to be that might suffice as it is and if it does and you can take your finger and smooth out around the top smooth out all the cracks if your clay gets too hard as you're working with it you can you can dip your fingers in water and smooth it over to but you don't have to dip your fingers in water every time you want to smooth out and crack watch I'll show you I'll crack this right here and then I'll put it back together and it still shows with my fingers I can push poke smooth it all around and then if I wanted it wide at the bottom I could do some more pinching only pinching harder at the bottom then I am at the top and then watch what happens clay begins to come up around doesn't it it's beginning to get taller so that now instead of being more less a flat Bowl it's getting to be a high round one there see then I have to go back if I wanted to stay like this and flatten it all out again and if I would leave this in the Sun with all the cracks moved out and smooth down as much as I could both on the inside and the outside and on the bottom then when it was dried be very hard and I could paint it and then cover it with shellac and perhaps keep pins in it of buttons that would come off of your shirt or something just any little all sorts of odds and ends well that's one way of making a bowl then there's another way to let me take another chunk of clay right here and show you another way this other way is called by rolling and by rolling you take some small pieces of clay just small little chunks roll them between your hands and then on a flat surface until you have something that looks almost like worms or snakes great big long ones they don't have to be long if we cut them up into small pieces but then in order to make a bowl from these round roll pieces of clay you wind them around and around and around just like this and then around the goal of course just can't leave it like that then comes the patching part and by patching press this round circle down this is going to be the bottom of the bowl press it down and then you work it all together so that you can't see the lines between these roles anymore rub them with your thumbs so that it looks now just like a flat piece of clay see and the underside still has the marks of the role in it so that you can just turn it over and do the same thing to the underside is more or less she pushes the clay together and realms it now then break off some more clay will start building up the outside first roll a little bit between our fingers oh that's almost too big of a chunk to work with and then on the table when you're rolling these pieces you want to remember to keep them as much the same size as possible now if you look here there's a weak spot in there because it's a little bit then I see how easily it pulled apart it's a little bit thinner there and it wasn't the other end so I'll just push it back together and roll it tight like that and then concentrate on this end down here because it's just a little bit too thick and by just using one finger and going back and forth I can stretch out this piece of clay make longer and longer and long and the roles that go around the outside of this role pottery should be thinner than the ones that we use for the bar so right around the sides we're going to go now only this is on top of the bottom piece of clay then we get back to where we started we build up another side I'm going to make these thicker than they should be made now just to show you how they build up all the way around for this leaves off we just pick it up again and continue building around in a circle if we want it wide at the bottom we can press them out of course the same thing has to be done with this role pottery that was done or with the sides that was done with the bottom has to be all smooth together and it might be a good idea to start smoothing it together after you get about or maybe two inches high so that you can still reach your fingers down there on the outside and by doing this role way you can very easily make your your power e dish come out and then go in and then out and then in just by adding these rolled pieces to the side and then probably you want to pick it up and start smoothing the rules together using your fingers and your thumbs sometimes it might look as if it's getting out of shape and it's not perfectly round anymore but don't worry about that because you can make it round again after you have all these little rolls hinge together and plastered together like that then another way of doing it would be to take a piece of clay and flatten it out on the table and get making it as flat as you could just flatten this out here could even use a rolling pin and then you cut out a piece for the bottom it would look similar to the bottom of the one that we did when we ruled only this is just a flat piece that's cut out just like you if you were making pie dough and then two more pieces that you could well together for the sides and that's the way you make the other kind which is called the flat kind of clay work will be working with clay see more later especially when we're giving presents away so hope you've learned something and get some play sometime make it yourself a lot of fun by now you