What's in the box?

It’s not just a box but a whole new skill. You can now complete our courses at home. Our first e-course is all about pinch pots… Start making pinch pots! Do, do!

We’re starting at the beginning. Learning about clay, understanding how it behaves and misbehaves.

The hardest thing about beginning to make pots is learning when to do the right thing at the right time. Our closest point of reference is baking. What is a soft peak when making a meringue? Is the bread worked sufficiently to pass the windowpane test? These are material problems. Understanding how materials in transition behave and their characteristics is an awareness the ceramist or potter, and indeed a baker needs to have. 

To learn about clay and make great pots you need to get stuck in. Touch, observe and assess... constantly. Clay communicates through your skin/hands and in turn you adjust how you handle and support it.

In ‘Start making pinch pots’ you’ll get to grips with clay and make great pots!

The course is structured into manageable chunks for you to complete at home, or if you are a session or studio member, at the studio. There’s enough content to keep you occupied for 20-40 hours. The curriculum is published on our e-learning platform, follow the link below for more information.

Start making pinch pots includes demonstrations, tutorials, handouts and briefs. Opal Video filmed our demonstrations - I’d highly recommend enlisting help if you’re thinking about filming. Studio Tom, Dick & Harry refined our branding and toolkit, and Jo Crawford photographed our attempts to sell a box. It is what it is, a polybox - very useful but… a polybox.

So what’s in the box?

If you select our ‘course with services’ you will receive a polybox, clay, whirler, samples and the tools to make tools. The polybox and whirler are loan items. They are returned with your finished pieces and exchanged for firing services, glazing services and postage of completed works. Access to e-courses is managed through our e-learning platform and courses are time-limited. Courses are available for 182 days and pieces for serviced courses must be returned to Sunken Studio within 182 days.

The polybox is for storing your work in progress - it slows the drying process and protects your pieces. We thought it would be useful to have something to store and transport your work. I can’t think of many people who want a partially finished pot in a plastic bag hanging around their kitchen. Nor many people who want to make a perilous journey to the studio with your prized pot balanced on your knees. We’ve tried to make living with clay easy and reduce risk - but can’t remove risk entirely.

We recommend transporting pieces when they are wet. Bone dry clay is incredibly fragile - it needs some heat to toughen up.

*** Unfired works cannot be posted back to the studio - pieces will not survive. Home-based students must make at least one journey to drop-off work.***

Oh, and in the box?

Dragging pots is a drag

Whirlers are for whirling pots. Keep things fluid and moving - as a handbuilder I think they are essential. Pro whirlers are pricey but your Sunken Studio whirler will be fine for spinning. We made them ourselves.

Crop it, don’t chop it

A scribe is our studio hack. That’s what you get for being a joiner’s daughter. Your Lego scribe allows you to adjust the height of a cut. You’ll need to enrol on our course for full details.

Now chopsticks

Most potters make some of their own tools. There's always something that you need that either doesn't exist or is too expensive. You’ll receive some chopsticks and a bit of sandpaper to encourage you to make your own tools.

Something sharp

Sometimes you need to whittle away to while away. There’s a scalpel in every box. It’s been deconstructed for safe shipping. Clay is an abrasive material so the blade is sharp, but not that sharp - please don’t use it for anything other than clay.

Clay!

Let’s not forget the clay. You’ll receive 4kg of our house clay. Keep it wrapped up. Dry clay is no fun at all.

SAMPLES

Examples of glossy goodness. Two test tiles so you can see the way our glaze behaves.

Stamp

Make one last mark or two. We include a course ID and a personal ID stamp. They go on every pot.

Drop off

Arrange a time to drop-off your work. Complete our Manifest. We like saying Manifest, but it has an important function. It identifies you and your work, what we should do and where it should go.

Toot, toot!

We’ll ship your box and kit. You return your finished pots and our kit. We’ll then fire, glaze, fire again and then ship your pieces back.

There are no carrots

Studio dogs get nowt…

Why do we loan our kits?

To keep costs down we loan our kits and exchange them in return for firing and glazing services, and the return postage of your finished pieces. Our Manifest outlines what you need to return. If we sold the kit it would add extra ££ to the course fee - so we thought it best to swap. We also want to get a lot of use out of our resources - they don’t need to hang around.