Travels in Clay....
Vietnam
When travelling in other countries its always interesting to see the skills and techniques of local potters. As someone who’s always struggled to throw pots taller than 6 inches I was amazed to watch this tiny Vietnamese woman throwing a pot nearly as big as her. Thanks to Michele Martin for these pictures of a lady throwing lady pots. An interesting techinique which could be scaled down for our studio.
Royal Delft Pottery
The picture below were taken during a recent visit to the Royal Delft factory in Delft, Netherlands. Its not a big factory but it has a long heritage and is one of the few producers who still hand paint some of their pots. They have website with a video of a pot being decorated and you can see how expensive the hand painted pots are. It is well worth a trip around if you go to Delft and the Cafe is great too.
 A large area full of slip moulds. All the Royal Delft pottery is slip cast. |  Pots drying ready for the next stage. |  Pots being fettled to remove mould marks from casting. T he pots then have another layer of slip to prevent joins showing after firing. |
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 Biscuit fired ware waiting for decoration |  Some of the Royal Delft pottery is hand painted |  The pattern to be painted is transferred to the pots with graphite powder pushed through a custom made mask with pin holes |
 Royal Delft painters train for 5yrs |  Brushes are laid out ready to begin painting |  The brush tips are trimmed to hold colour but also give a fine line |
 The painters only use on mix of colour and vary the tone by making it thinner or thicker |  The transformation from marking out to painted and then fully fired |  Areas of the pot are masked to prevent sprayed glaze from causing pots to stick when fired |
 Tall sectioned vases for tulips are a specialty of dutch pottery |  Finished work is sold in the factory shop with small transfer designs selling for a few pounds and large hand painted work for thousands. |  The mass produced transfer decorated pots |
 This is a life sizes copy of 'The Night Watchman' |  A fountain decorated with broken pots. |