Laser cutting QR code stamps

We want to draw our QR codes, rather than print them, because it is an interesting juxtaposition of the digital and the hand made. We like the idea of one of the most ancient human technologies (firing earth)  meeting one of the more recent ones (computing). At some point in the future, humans may wonder what these strange squares are all about, but they are likely to still know what a plate is for.

Still, getting the QR code onto the plate in a simple way, so it could be drawn, was proving a challenge.

Crail Beach clay plate footring

The base of the plate is now dry enough, after two days, to have the footring added without collapsing.

Clentrie Farm plate decoration progress

This little shard was found in the field where we dug the clay. It's inclusion in the plate tells the story of our clay digging, but it also makes you wonder who once owned the piece and how did it get here. It makes you think of the cycle of life too, where even fired clay goes back to the earth. Our soil not only feed us, but can throw up our history too.

Decorating

Christine has started to decorate some of the plates...

Glamis Road Allotment clay drying

At last this clay is dry enough to be wedged up.

This is how the white clay slip is applied to the leather hard plate. The white clay is a ball clay from Devon. It is very difficult to find white clay in Scotland, though we are trying. The white clay is used to provide a contrast, so that we are able to draw through it with our designs.

Drying the base of Crail clay plates

The rims of plates tend to dry out first and so shrink slightly, hich causes them to rise up a little. In order to get the middle of the plate to catch up with the drying rim, I flip the plates over and put a dry bat (the disk potters throw on) on top and then flip the plates back over again. The dry bat draws out some of the moisture in the base.

Glamis Road Allotment clay drying

With the wet weather and the amount of clay drying I have been doing, these plaster bats are pretty wet, so the clay is rolled up and slopped out onto another plaster bat.

Bird crashes into slip!

A bird crashed into my shed window and ended up falling in this Glamis Road Allotment clay slip. The poor thing was nowhere to be found so I assume it picked itself up and staggered off...

Footring on a Pittormie thrown plate

This is the plate I have been most nervous of because the clay was very difficult to work, which is, of course, no reflection on the quality of the farm! I realise now I could have sieved the clay quite a bit more, and this would have made the proportion of clay higher in this mix. Still, I discovered that throwing is a superior way of making plates than press moulding, because it keeps the clay body compressed as it shapes it, while rolling clay stretches it out, breaking the microscopic joins that gives clay it's remarkable plastic quality.

A good day's work

Both of these clays were lovely to use.

Plate making with Reekies Garage clay

"Tesco" is the working name I gave this clay, because the clay came from the site where a new Tesco is to be built.

Plate making with Crail clay

Christine decorating a Pillars of Hercules plate

Glamis Road allotment clay preparation

Attaching a footring to a thrown Clephanton plate

Attaching a footring to a press moulded Clephanton plate

Pittormie clay plate

Throwing a plate with Pittormie clay.

Farmers Market Conversations plate fired!

The plate has come out great and the QR code works.

Flattening plate rims

As clay dries it shrinks (hence the cracking you get in dried out muddy fields). In pot making the outer extremities dry first and in the case of plates, that means the rim. So the outer rim gets smaller in relation to the rest of the plate, meaning it rises up. If necessary, I put the plate back on the wheel and flatten it down a little, otherwise the plate starts to resemble a bowl...

Decorating plate rims

This is where Christine starts to work her magic...

Throwing a plate using Clentrie clay

Most people throw flat objects on bats which are removable wheel heads. They can be made of wood and wood products, fired clay, plaster and are attached toe the permanent wheel head in various ways. In my case I use a disk of clay with knuckles pressed in. The bats, made of chipboard, are centred on top of the disk and then thumped to stick it to the clay.

Slipped rims on current plates

The plates I have slipped today...

Slipping the rims of Pillars of Hercules plates

The rims of our plates are to have the name of the clay source written on them. We paint a white clay (ball clay, from Devon) on first then the writing will be scratched through to reveal the dark clay again. This is called sgraffito.

Throwing plates

With all the cracking of the plates using the moulds, I decide to throw the plates as I think they will be stronger. The compression of the clay in the throwing process makes the clay more compact, tighter and stronger. The use of the mould was really to get a consistent plate shape, so that the variation in the plates came as a result of the clay itself and less so in the variations inherent in throwing. So here goes...

Another Clephanton plate

Crail beach clay

This batch of Crail beach clay is lovely and, well, clay-like. It is taking an age to dry though, as it is so fine and not settling out. One batch out, next batch in. These will be wedged together later.

Another plate failure...

This is the Clephanton Farm clay. When I was labelling clay during the collection and cleaning process, I started with names that made most sense to me. We are great fans of Anster cheese, made by the St Andrews Cheese company. We normally get it from Billy Hughes' fish van, which comes to us and other customers in Tayport on Wednesday, direct from Anstruther. The St Andrews Cheese company is just north of Anstruther. A good friend tells me that Anster, the locals name for Anstruther, is pronounced "Ainster".

Pittormie plate using the new plate mould

This plate doesn't end well...

Clays from Fife!

Here are six of the clays we dug and collected from around Fife. It has been dried, slaked down to a creamy consistency, sieved, settled out, dried out and wedged. Now it is resting. From a potters point of view, in terms of workability, plasticity and strength, clay "improves" with ageing or souring. It is normally recommended that clay needs two weeks to sour, but potters in Chine and Japan used to keep clay in this plastic state to pass on to future generations. Clay also improves with being wedged (similar to kneading bread dough) or pugged (similar to passing through a sausage machine).

Clentrie clay plate

This plate was made this evening using the plate mould and the techniques that can be seen in a previous post, using Clentrie (aka Puddledub) clay.

Farmers' Market Conversations plate

Christine and I have been working away, discussing ideas about how to get stories onto the small surface of a plate. Christine has been inspired by the pottery shards she and our daughter have picked up at our clay digs and on beaches, feeling that they have stories to tell, if only they could speak. See this post. This isn't so far fetched; archeologists draw pictures of human existence from fragments.

Still drying clay...

It has been wet. The plaster bats are wet. The clay is wet.

Another plate mould

I wondered if cracking could be prevented by laying the clay into a mould, so the face of the plate is up as clay is pressed into the plaster. When making the plate upside down, there is a chance the clay is snagging on the inner rim area, though this shouldn't normally be a problem.

Clephanton plate wedged up again

I decide the plate is beyond saving. I am a bit despondent about it, because I had high hopes for this clay - it was so easy to find and dig up.

Plate making with Clephanton clay

This plate was made using the same method as can be seen in previous posts.

Plates to date

A selection of the plates to date. Pittormie, Clentrie (Puddledub), Pillars and Easter Kincaple (Seafield).

Allotment clay preparation

Given the deadline approach, I decided to take the clay from the allotment and slake down while it was still wet. It helped that the clay content wasn't high and there was lots of sand in it. So here my daughter and I throw little pieces of clay into lots of water and use a plaster mixer on a drill to agitate it vigorously. 

Yet more clay prep

The heavier clay from the bottom of the bucket has dried out quickly. That's because there wasn't much clay in it it was mainly sand.

More clay drying

The Crail Beach clay was very difficult to dry out, since it didn't settle out of the water very readily. I think that means the clay particles are very fine. This is why I needed to get the pipes and stockings out...