Ceramic Art Trends, Tools, and Techniques for Potters Worldwide
Wheel-Thrown Pottery
By Bill van Gilder
Loaded with step-by-step wheel projects & techniques you will love! Autographed copies are available EXCLUSIVELY from Clay Times
Price: $17.95 + s&h
Bill van Gilder Pottery Tools
Complete Tool Package
Bill van Gilder has been designing and refining pottery tools for more than 30 years. A master potter and regular Clay Times columnist, Bill is also host of the DIY network's "Throwing Pots" TV series, where he generously shares his techniques and use of his tools. Bill has demonstrated his tools at the 2005-2008 NCECA conferences, as well as regular instructional workshops. Potters love them! In the tool descriptions below, Bill discusses the unique qualities of each tool and how it is used.
Complete Tool Package includes:
- Large Rope Rolled
- Small Roped Roller
- Aluminum Wire Knife
- Undercut Tool
- Profiled Foot Rib
- Hole Cutter
- Textured Block Set
- Wiggle Wire
- Hump Cut-off Tool
- Siphon Blower
- Edge Rounding Tool
- Fluting Tool
- Great Glazes I book
SAVE more than 10% plus receive FREE Great Glazes, Volume 1 book!
12 tools ordered separately: $131.50
Tool Package Price: $118.35
Roped Rollers
“There are lots of simple tools to use when decorating your work,” says designer/potter Bill van Gilder. “Often, simple is best! These long and short roped dowels are easy to use and extremely effective. Hold it between your fingertips like a small rolling pin. Using a steady, gentle hand pressure, roll a roped dowel across a soft clay tile in one direction. Turn the tile and roll again. Inlay thin cardboard as ‘resist.’ Using a roped dowel, roll over your design to create an interesting 3-D decoration. You can stamp into and over a roped texture, too. Use these tools to rope-texture a leather-hard pot; plate rims, handle surfaces, plus vase and cup forms. Use the large dowel for big pots; the small dowel for small ware. Try inlaying slip into the roped surface. Allow the form to dry until stiff leather-hard, scrape off the top slipped surface and over-glaze as a final step. Beautiful!"
Large Roped Roller Price: $5.50 + S&H
(5" long x 3/4" diameter)Buy
Small Roped Roller Price: $4.50 + S&H
(3" long x 3/4" diameter)Buy
Aluminum Wire Knife
"Designed to comfortably fit the hand, this lightweight and hard-surfaced aluminum "knife" will become one of your most-used studio tools - for handbuilding and at the wheel,” Bill says. "It's ideal for cutting coils! And, it's a safe tool to use in the classroom. It's a great tool for leveling rims - a safe alternative to the more dangerous needle tool. Use it to trim teapot spouts and handle ends, to facet, to cut out feet, and more..."
Price: $16.50 + S&H
Undercut Tool
The 3-in-1 hardwood throwing tool can be the most useful and favorite tool at the wheel. Bill says, “You will save time as you pick up and put down fewer tools when working at the wheel. Use this tool to undercut a bevel at the foot of a thrown pot, and then use the long beveled edges to rib your pot into shape. Use the pointed ends of the tool to groove design-lines around a form. A grooved surface keeps this tool from slipping from the fingertips and includes a hole for hanging up."
5" length x 1" width x 3/16" thickness with two 45-degree beveled ends
Price: $6 + S&H
Profiled Foot Rib
Used as an alternative to trimming, the profiled foot rib produces an instant rounded foot profile by pushing the easy-to-use tool into the base edge of a wet pot on the wheel.
“You can create an interesting scalloped foot profile by rhythmically pressuring the tool into the base edge of your slowly spinning form,” Bill says. “Using the cornered point of the tool, add some decorative lines to complete your foot treatment. Pull it along the foot of a slab-based form to securely attach the wall to the base. And, at the same time, create an even, rounded, smooth foot edge - all in one step! Each tool has two rounded foot profiles and an easy-to-grip center hole. Made of hardwood."
Size: 2" x 2-1/2" x 3/8" thickness
Price: $12 + S&H
Hole Cutter
“The most efficient hole-cutting tool you'll ever use!” says designer and potter Bill van Gilder. “The no-clog design makes hole-cutting quick and easy. Cut holes from 1/16" to 1/2" in diameter - with one tool. Extra-sharp blade edges cut through leather-hard clay cleanly, without excessive sanding to follow. Touch the tool point at the center of the hole to be cut. Add a slight pressure and twist to produce the perfect hole! Use the small end of the tapered handle to counter-sink and smooth hole edges. Cut hole patterns in colanders and sieves, garlic jars, potpourri pots, candle lamps, teapots and more..."
Hardwood tapered handle is 2-1/2" in length, metal cutting blade is 2-3/4" in length
Price: $12 + S&H
Textured Block Set
“Add an interesting texture to your coiled handles by rolling coils of clay between these two non-stick corrugated boards,” Bill says.
“Position the boards at different angles and directions to produce an assortment of great textures: linear cross-hatching, twisted spirals, circular rings, straight-line grooves, and more! The corrugated surfaces are sized to create textures in the correct proportion used for functional pottery. Decorate casserole handles, mug handles, handbuilt knobs, foot coils ... your search for a sturdy, corrugated texture tool is over! "
Base board is 6" x 6" x 1/2" thickness; top board is 5" X 5" x 1/2" thickness Made of hardwood.
Price: $16 + S&H
Wiggle Wire
Add an interesting bottom surface to each pot you make by using the wiggle wire tool beneath each form as you cut it from the wheelhead to create an assortment of subtle linear patterns. “No more plain, boring base surfaces! Create great patterns across slabs and tiles,” Bill says. “Use your wiggle wire to cut some freeform facets into your work, or cut and decorate the rims of bowls and plates. You’ll find unlimited possibilities for your wiggle wire!
Helpful hint: When throwing pots intended to be wiggle-wired from the wheelhead or a bat, be sure to add 1/8" to the thickness of each pot base to compensate for a deeper corrugated cut."
16" L wire with two sturdy hardwood handles, 3/4" dia. x 2-1/4" L
Price: $6.50 + S&H
Hump Cut-Off Tool
“This Asian-style cut-off tool is easy to use. After throwing a form at the top of a hump, use the beveled, pointed end of the tool to cut a 1/2" angled groove below the foot,” Bill says. “Then, reverse the position of the tool in your hand and, with the wheel spinning slowly, lay the end of the string into the corner of the groove. Like a toy top, allow the string to wrap around the foot and immediately pull the string from the clay. The string will neatly release the form from the hump with a perfectly level base cut."
6-1/2" L x 1/2" hardwood with 8" string
Price: $7 + S&H
Siphon Blower
“This is one of the most efficient glazing tools you'll ever use. This traditional Japanese oral spray tool is simple to use and only requires a gentle blowing from your mouth. You will broaden your decorating abilities as you build multiple slip and glaze surfaces onto your work,” Bill says.
“Spot spray or feather layers of glaze onto the shoulder of a pot, at the foot, or subtly highlight knobs and handles. Spray over glaze mistakes and unwanted finger marks. Spray slip or glaze over paper or cardboard silhouettes; or patch-spray an organized or random pattern across or around a pot. Rather than dip or pour glaze over that large pot, spray it! Use your water-filled spray can to mist and dampen leather-hard works in progress. For extensive layered applications, have several spray cans loaded and on hand. Lightly pressure each can, in turn, onto your air compressor nozzle to quickly change colors - without the hassle of constantly cleaning up spray guns and bottle containers! The no-clog design allows for hours of efficient spraying.
Remember, if the glaze is too thick, you won’t be able to spray it. Thinner glazes work best, so you may need to apply more than one coat. These spray cans clean up easily by just rinsing under running water."
Siphon Blower Dimensions: 1-1/2" H x 6-3/4" L
Price: $24.50 + S&H
Fluting Tool
"Here is another decorating tool I use," van Gilder says. "This Asian- style, hand-scaled tool is used to 'flute' pattern into the wall of a soft, leather-hard pot.
"Each blade end—one convex shaped and one concave shape—cuts a scalloped or domed-shaped flute. Pulling the tool through the wall from rim to foot creates a very simple, but sophisticated and elegant, surface pattern. A technique worth mastering!"
Size: 1 1/4" x 7"
Made from hardened, rust-proof steel.
Price: $12 + S&H
Edge Rounding Tool
Every potter should have this sturdy, hardened-steel edge rounding tool in their tool box! Use it when handbuilding to quickly round and smooth the sharp edge, or rim, of a leather-hard slab. One evenly pressured pull of the tool along a squared edge smoothly rounds the edge profile — an efficient replacement for the laborious 'rasp' tool typically used. Use it on slab plate and platter rims, the handbuilt edges of vase forms — anywhere a smooth, rounded rim is desired. Adjust or decrease the diameter of a leather-hard, thrown lid by using the tool at the wheel to skim away excess clay from a lid rim. Do it in one easy step to create a beautiful, round-edged profile.
Size: 4 1/2" x 6"
Made from chrome-coated steel