Hi, I am Charan Sachar, the artist behind Creative with Clay. I am a hand-builder and most of the work that I make involves the use of the Extruder in one way or the other. I have been using an extruder for 20 years and it is truly the most used equipment in the studio.
In this workshop I will be walking you through the steps involved in making my Oil Bottles. I will go over the ergonomic use of the extruder, my die design and how I make the different components to make the bottles.
My work is inspired by my love for fabric and how it is put together to make clothing and decorated with embroideries and textures.
I find handbuilding with extrusions to be a great way to represent my inspiration in clay.
So join me as we explore the use of the extruder to make unique work.
In this workshop, we will be going through:
- Talking about die design and how to make your own dies to create work that is unique to you
- We will cover the various tools I use in addition to the extruder. I will also be describing my setup of the extruder to make it ergonomically easier to extrude.
- Prepping the clay for extrusion
- Installing the extruder die, loading the extruder and extruding out the body of the oil bottle
- Extruding slabs for the base and top of the bottle
- Throwing the top of the bottle on the wheel.
- Assembling the the components to complete the oil bottle.
At the end of this workshop, you will gain the knowledge of how to use the extruder for hollow forms and alter them. Extrusions are great starting points for hand-building. You can alter them to make vases, mugs, teapots, sculptural pieces. The possibilities are endless.
Required Materials:
- Clay extruder (I use the Scott Creek 5″ square extruder)
- Slab roller or rolling pin to make slabs
- Basic tools: Ribs, serrated tool for scoring, Wire cutting tool, sponges, brushes