Clay Demo

The clay is of a plastic consistency whereas when it was originally got out of the ground, it would have been a lot dryer, all that they have done is add water. This was one description that i found on bottle slumping. " Many people also use the word 'fusing' to include bending and shaping using the heat of the kiln. This manipulating can take many forms, but the most common is 'slumping', where a mould is used to cause already fused glass to take on the shape of a bowl, a plate, or a similar object. 
After research, I would define bottle slumping as " shaping a bottle to look like a certain design or purpose, whether it be a kitchen utensil or a piece of art."


These are the instructions for making our bottle slump mould:


Equiptment:
Rolling pin       knife       mat       fork       pot of water     clay


Instructions, step by step
1) Cover bottles in paper towels.
2) Flatten clay using the palm of our hand. Keep turning it over and repeat process until it is even (1cm thick)
3) With a knife, trim the edges
4) Get two scrap pieces of clay and put them either side of the bottle to stop it rolling.
5) Drape the clay over the bottle and shape delicately.
6) At 4 points rough the clay up (crosshatching) with a fork
7) Put 4 'feet' onto the mould, crosshatching them before hand
8) Attach the 'feet' to the mould using a small amount of water. The 'glue' is called the clay slip.
9) Curve the ends of the mould up and initial them.
10) leave the mould to go bone dry.
11) Fire into kiln at 1,110'c