Any clay that I take off of the pot when throwing gets put on plaster to
take out excess water so this just has to be wedged up. I just make a giant
marble bit of clay, push something interesting in it, and as I'm doing so
I'm pinching it so that it makes something of a handle. You can also carve
a design into one or both ends a tube of clay. This is really hard to
describe. It doesn't really matter what you push into it or how you form
it. It is a hit and miss proposition to some degree. Stamps that I have
put a lot of work into don't work in the end because they are too busy and
just look messy. Some of my more boring looking stamps make the more
interesting designs when used to make multiple patterns. It lets you give
texture to pieces easily. As an example - take the marble bit of clay, roll
it out to a short sausage shape, carve off little pie shapes in four to six
corners to leave a raised pattern on the end. Let this dry, bisque fire and
then make a field of flowers in a plate in one corner or section (you can
make a center to the flower design by making a stamp that is just pointed to
a round end of the size you want that has had a ball point pen or pensil
making multiple little indents.

If I think of it, I will take some photos and post them but it really is
just open to your imagination.

Donna

"Bubbles" wrote in message
...

"DKat" wrote in message
...
That is about the size I work with from dry trimmings, failures, etc (5
gallon buckets). For wet clay that comes from working, I just put it on
a
plaster board as I'm working and then at the end of the session wedge
that
all up, bag it to add to or use it to make stamps if it isn't enough to
throw with. (just remembered I have some recycling at home that I
forgot
to wedge and bag up - hope the plastic cover was enough to keep it
moist...).

Hi Donna :-)

Good idea with the really wet stuff - but I am trying to avoid too wet -
and
hope to get better at this - thus I will be mostly just leaving a bucket
for
a couple of weeks or more (while filling up the next bucket) to dry, then
treat.

How do you mean about making stamps? Pattern stamps, I suppose. What do
you
do then? Just form them into a stamp-shape first, then carve them when
they
are hard enough?

Marianne