Pinch Pot Workshop
August Meeting Notes

At our August meeting, we spent the evening making “pinch pots”. Pinch pots are pots that are simply pinched into interesting forms using your hands. No special equipment, such as rollers, forms, or turntables, is needed. In bonsai, pinch pots are commonly used with accent plantings or with trees that present a “rugged” form or style. That’s because pinch pots usually have an “unfinished” or “unrefined” appearance.

Pinch pots can be twisted in to unlimited shapes and forms. Pots that resemble standard forms (rectangles, ovals, etc) can be made but more organic forms are typical. The most appealing aspect of pinch pots is that you can make them yourself and customized a pot for a particular display or arrangement.

When starting a pinch pot project, the major limitation is where to fire the clay. With a bit of searching your neighborhood, you may find a pottery artist that can help. Or you may join a pottery group a local neighborhood center. A good choice if you plan to continue making your own pots. Besides, there are numerous techniques that can be used that will affect the final look o the pots (gas-fired verses electric for example).

Clay for making the pots is easy to find. San Francisco has several arts and crafts stores to choose from and a single package of clay can produce hundreds of small pots. For our workshop, we used three colors of clay, Black Mountain (dark grey), Death Valley (red-brown) and Sandstone Buff (tan).

Clay sliced off the stock using a thin wire and then molded into forms. The two most basic ways to begin is either by slow pinching a ball of clay into round form or by rolling out a thin sheet of clay and then rolling that sheet into a pot-like form.
Our workshop used clays that when fired, give an earthly appearance. These pots will not be glazed for more color. So, to add more interest to the pots, we recommend giving the pot some texture using any household item. Once again, a chopstick is a great tool for creating small indentions in the clay or marking grooves in the surface. Plus, no need to wash up, they are compost-able (the cheap wooden ones). Other than chopsticks, consider using forks, knives, burlap material, and event the plastic mesh we use to cover the drainage holes in our pots. All of these things can make interesting patterns on the surface of the clay.

A few ideas to keep in mind when making your pot: 1) Try to keep the walls of your pot relatively thin and also a uniform thickness. This will prevent the pots from drying and firing unevenly that may result in cracks (or worse) in the finished product. 2) Drainage holes! Don’t forget that your pot will need to drain. Simply use a knife or punch to add the holes. Adding holes after firing is nearly impossible. 3) Keep in mind what will be planted in the pot! Succulents, ferns, moss, etc. Try to match the textures of the plant with the look of the pot. 4) Size. Think about the overall display you want to use. You should make a variety of large and small pots to fit the design. 5) Shrinkage. As the pots dry and are fired, they will shrink slightly. It’s not too obvious, but if you are aiming for a particular sized pot, this could be an issue.

If you really enjoyed making pots, consider joining a class. Our small and simple workshop was no more complicated than a high school art class. There are volumes of books written on the art of firing your clays, glaze formulations, and more that we could no way cover. This coming spring, we will discuss plants to chose for your new pots and how to make great accent plantings using your own pots. -L.L.

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