Suggestions On Adhering A Rim?

[Kye]

Hi there.

 

I'd recently bought one of the magical texture rollers. My bowl dried for about 3-4 days, when I finally got my hands on the roller. I then rolled out a ribbon line of texture, scored it and the bowl, and applied. Predictably as they were at different levels of dryness, there was a good amount of cracking to the ribbon.

 

Seeing as if you put it on the pot too early, it will cave in, and too late.. well nevermind. As for the ribbon, if you don't do it right away because it's so thin it would be harder to bend and would start cracking. Can anyone recommend how to attache the two without cracking? Thanks.

 

Note: the attached image shoes the bowl just after I'd attached the ribbon and you can see an area where I've started carving, the cracking I'm referring too are hairline and larger lines appearing all around the rim from top to bottom on the design face of the ribbon.

[GiselleNo5]

Second photo doesn't want to load. 

 

So the reason for the cracking as you may know is that the ribbon is shrinking at a different rate than the pot. 

Not sure how much control you have over your drying times or studio access. Something I do in my studio since it can be several days in between "working days" is that as soon as the piece reaches trimming consistency I put it in a plastic lidded bin. This gives me up to two weeks to trim (if I didn't already), handle, carve, slip trail, or sculpt the piece. The only time I've had issues with cracking is when the piece was allowed to become too dry before I put it in the bin in the first place. 

 

If I put a clay bag between the lid and the bin, the piece will stay moist even longer. I had the flu in February and a piece I had started to decorate with sculpted leaves sat in a bin with lid and clay bag for a whole month. I finally finished it up on Saturday. The piece is dry now and not a single sculpted addition has cracked. It looks the same as a piece that I threw Saturday morning and added leaves to that same day. 

 

Another thing I do when adding attachments is try to have the attachment be at a similar dry stage to the piece. So if I'm attaching a coil handle to a leather hard pot, I make the handle, then do trimming or other activities for awhile, and attach the handle when it feels more like the pot. I've made probably one hundred handled items in the past year and I can only think of perhaps two whose handles cracked at the join. 

[bciskepottery]

Slightly thin and fold over your rim while throwing; after it sets up a bit, apply the roller texture. Cut off bat and let dry. No need for adding a separate rim piece.

[Pres]

I have been using two of these rollers of late and find that rolling before shaping is really an interesting technique for cylinder type pots. I intend to throw some bowl today, maybe I 'll try it on them.

 

best,

Pres