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Chattering?


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Yes, wheel speed matters. But to get really nice designs I focus on tool angle.

 

gallery_10453_377_838240.jpg

Is this Chattering??

Amazing.

Haven't seen such distinct spiralling pattern. Stopping on reaching bottom of each spiral but then how to 're enter ' for the next chatter???

Stunned.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yedrow,

I too love the piece you posted. It looks like you fluted the pot and then did the chattering down each fluted channel.

Can you make sense of what I just said?

I am trying to understand how you managed that lovely design.(Step by step, I am indeed a newbie )

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I think there is a subtle difference between using the impression "texture" tool like the rolling Steve Tool, or any rolling edge die tool, and chattering.

 

Chattering is cutting clay away with a sharp edged tool which is happening at a particular frequency: the tool cuts then jumps up in a somewhat controllable vibration pattern. It's the vibration thaty makes the buzzing sound on drier pots. You (somewhat) control the frequency by how firmly you hold the tool. If you tightly/firmly hold the tool end, you are lowering the bounce & increasing the frequency at which the tool contacts the pot, so your marks will be closer together. If you loosen your grip a tad, you are allowing the tool to bounce away from the pot more, and decreasing the frequency at which the tool meets the pot. This will lead to more widely spaced chop marks.

 

Texture tools do not, by their nature, change the frequency of mark: frequency here is determined by the width of the teeth marks on the edge of the die, first, and second, by whether you push the clay out from the inside of the pot after marking. The more you push fom the inside and expand the clay wall, the more the marks will separate, thereby decreasing the frequency in the finished pot. Texture tools are impressing their marks into the clay, and are usually used when the clay is very wet/being thrown.

 

Chattering tools can be used at any time. If you use them when the surface is very wet/being thrown, your marks are soft and more apt to smoosh the clay around on the surface. If you continue to throw from there, you'll begin to get a spiral in the chatter marks because you are still moving the clay body around from the inside and torquing the pattern. If you have a leather hard pot on the moist side, you'll get sharper cut marks, and you can get some fairly low frequency patterns because the tool can still bite into the wetter clay surface. If the clay is pretty dry, the chatter will almost always be high frequency with finer indentations into the clay surface, just because the clay won't allow the tool to dig in as much.

 

It's super fun. Try any tool you have, and if you can't get the tool to bounce, then sharpen your tool and hold it at least at a 90 degree angle perpendicular to the surface. Longer handles/tools make it easier as well. Metal banding strap are very hard to find (since most straps are now plastic), but you can still get them from places that ship brick or rocks or heavy tiles for floor installations. Only metal will keep that stuff on pallets for shipping.

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