How-to: Custom Texture Mats

Anyone who has been to one of my workshops knows how much love I have for craft foam.   Not only is it available in bright colors, but you can purchase it with an adhesive backing that works great for making quick custom texture mats for clay.  Here, I'll show you how to quickly make your own texture mat using craft foam and scissors.

Purchase craft foam with an adhesive back.  It is available at many hobby and craft stores, as well as discount stores. 

Cut shapes out of one of the sheets of the peel and stick foam

Create a custom design by placing your cut-outs onto another sheet of craft foam.  Here I have used two levels of peel and stick foam (white and yellow) and attached them to regular craft foam (red).

Place the texture mat face down on a slab and use your rolling pin to transfer the relief pattern.

The craft foam won't stick to the clay and your design imprints perfectly!

The craft foam texture mats can be reused countless times.  Play around with positive and negative imprints by cutting away and adding to the texture mats.  Different thicknesses of the craft foam will yield different depths of texture.  So many possibilities!

Photo Finish

treat server under loose plastic

One of my rituals after finishing an involved piece, like this treat server, is to snap some photos of it.  Seeing the silhouette, flattened on an iphone screen, actually allows me see proportions and shapes that were unnoticed in the round.

Since most pots are viewed through photos on the internet, making picture taking an active part of process, evaluation, and evolution just makes sense.

Form is as important to me as it is to most makers.  The in-process photo also allows me to see Form, uncorrupted by my obsessive surface decoration. ;)

Process Shot

Get to work!  It's Friday and since returning from SOFA Chicago, I've taken a few days to do NON-STUDIO life maintenance.  It's been nice to attend to some things I've let lag, but I am itching to get back into the studio rhythm.  Here's an image of me forming a handbuilt platter to get things going.

Fall Newsletter

Check out my Fall Newsletter highlighting my upcoming SOFA lecture, workshops and exhibitions  here.

Narrative Treat Servers

After getting my MFA degree in 2010, I went skydiving in Palatka, FL with a group of friends.  2 1/2 years later, the experience has made its way onto one of my favorite forms, the treat server.  

I've changed up the form of my treat server to tell this story by making the surfaces flat, instead of curved.  The flat surface makes the servers more useful.  I had the chance to try one out at the reception of my solo show at the Carbondale Clay Center last weekend.  The blue server was filled with multi-colored gumdrops for all to enjoy.

While I will continue to make the curved surfaces of my traditional treat servers, many featuring spoons tucked inside pockets, I am excited about using the two levels to showcase a visual narrative on the flatter surface.  

Before and After

Decisions for surface can be intimidating:  especially when working out a new form or making an involved piece like this 11-piece serving set.  I had coated all the surfaces with Forbes wax to aid the underglaze inlay process.  Fortunately, it bought me some more time with surface decisions, as the wax makes everything dry more slowly.  Nothing cracked!  Here's an image of the form in its greenware stage and after completion.  

The Four Person Serving Set contains four cups, four spoons, a sugar jar, creamer and two-tiered tray.  It is currently on display at the Carbondale Clay Center in Carbondale, CO.

Fall Frenzy

So much is going on lately and I have so much to tell you!  A few highlights: I have moved to Kansas City, MO and set up a studio in the Allsman Building (31st and Holmes).  I will be going to Minneapolis, MN at the end of this week for the American Pottery Festival through Northern Clay Center.  During the festival, I will be demonstrating my handbuilding and surface decoration techniques in "Beyond Flat."  The Utilitarian Clay Symposium at Arrowmont is happening later this month--I am looking forward to assisting the conference and getting back to TN--especially during the fall. All the while, I am busy making work for a solo show at Carbondale Clay Center in Colorado coming up next month.

Finally, I have listed a few cups on my new Etsy Shop.  One of the goodies is pictured below. Check out the others here.