How They Are Created

There is a lot of time and process that goes into these sinks.  Everything I do is completely handmade, starting with the first step, making the clay!  Dry clays and other ingredients, along with water, are measured and put inside the clay mixer.  This machine combines the water and dry ingredients then de-airs it, making usable clay!

The next step is actually throwing the sink on the potter's wheel.  To begin I wedge the clay, this is sort of like kneading bread and consists of the the same motions.  Wedging is done to remove any lingering air bubbles missed by the pugger and to make sure the clay is a nice even inconstancy.  A lot of clay goes into making a sink, depending on size they size the sink, up to 20 lbs of clay can go into each sink.  Since this is a huge amount of clay to center I do it in two steps.  First I center half then add and center the remaining half.

The next step is opening the form.  I press my fingers in the center of the clay to push down to the desired depth.  I leave the bottoms very thick on these then trim away excess later because the thickness of the bottoms needs to be just right, not too thick and not too thin. With my fingers in the center of the clay I press outwards slowly creating symmetrical hole in the center. The next step is pulling up the walls.  I use fingers of one hand to gently press against the inside wall while using my other hand to gently press against outside wall while slowly raising my hands.  Once the walls have the desired height I use ribs (rubber discs) and sponges to refine the shape and open it to the desired diameter.  Since clay shrinks as it dries I have to make the sinks about 15 percent larger then I need them to be once they are fired.

Once the sink is the desired shape and diameter I cut and refine the hole in the center for the drain pipe.  As you can see from the picture there is a lot of excess clay at the bottom.   After the clay dries for a while it firms up to a stage of dryness called leather hard.  At this stage I can flip the sink upside down on a very large plaster disk (called a bat) and trim the bottom.  With trimming tools (which are a metal loops with a semi-sharp edge to them) I further refine the shape and trim a foot ring so they sit nicely above the counter.

The final step in the making process is adding the border and/or sculptural elements.  I make all my own stamps and can make a stamp out of most line images.  Most of my borders are made from repeating stampings but any pattern can be applied.  First I roll out a thin clay slab, then press or roll the stamp into the clay with my hand or a rolling pin.  I cut out each section of the stamping with a craft knife then brush liquid clay on to the back of the stamping which acts like glue binding the stamping to the leather hard sink. This process makes the border and the sink one solid piece once fired. 

I can also make 3-dimensional sculptural elements to add to the sinks.  The salamanders as in on the sink pictured were hand-built and added to the sink.  The possibilities are endless!

The sinks are slowly dried.  This can take any where from a week to three weeks depending on the size and complexity of the sink.  Once the sink is dried it is pre-fired (bisqued) fired.  This makes the sink rock hard but porous enough to absorb glaze.  The glaze on my sinks is truly special!  It is called zinc crystalline.  The patterns and spots that appear in the glaze are not things I painted on but actual crystals similar to an snow flake, where as each is unique and grew from nucleus (a tiny origin). 

To grow these crystals the glaze needs to be very fluid so it is taken to a top temperature where it is liquid and runny.  Because of the fluid nature of the glaze each sink needs to be fired on catchers that I made to sit under the sink and catch excess glaze.  If they were not on catchers the glaze would run all over the kiln shelves.  After the glaze had reached the top temperature I cool the kiln to the growing temperatures of the crystals which is a range between 2100 - 1700 degrees F.  I hold the kiln at various temperatures for periods of time (which could be a few hours to few minutes).  The kiln is then allowed to cool and once it is below 200 degrees F.  I can open the kiln and unload the sink.  The catcher is then knocked off and the bottoms are sanded with rotary tools and sanding discs so that the bottom is nice and smooth and will sit on the counter perfectly!