I’ve been away from pottery for many years, but after a few years in bonsai I am getting the itch to make pots again. I’m looking for some advice on selecting the right clay body. I’m planning to do some wheel work and slab building, and starting with small to mid size pots. I’ll be limited to cone 6 for now. I know I should be looking for something with a low absorption rate, but are there other considerations that are unique to bonsai?
Hi,
Welcome to the world of bonsai pot building! Low absorption rate is a must, as you know, to avoid cracking in the freeze-thaw cycle. Other than that you can pretty much use any clay you want if you are building small to medium pots. I generally try to match grog content to how rustic a pot I am making - very groggy for nanban pots, a finer tooth for more delicate/ feminine pots where I want to do fine detailing.
Consider how the color of the final fired pots will interplay with the glaze you are using and the intended color scheme of the pot, especially if the feet will be left unglazed because the pot is sitting directly on the kiln shelf and you don’t want the glaze to overrun.
As tempting as it is, try not to do too many round pots, since they are used more infrequently than rectangular and oval pots. If you love throwing on the wheel, an oval pot can be easily achieved by throwing a bottomless rim, then placing the rim on a slab in the desired shape. Otherwise, hand building is a great way to go.
Some people use hole cutters for the tie downs and center drainage, but I like to use a screwdriver bit (upwards of 5/16") for the tie downs and a round cookie cutter set for the drainage.
I don’t know what your skill level is, so I apologize if I am mentioning things you already know.
There are a lot of great videos on Youtube that discuss making bonsai pots. I like Dan Barton, greg-ceramics, and others. Greg-ceramics has some classic bonsai pot patterns behind a pay wall on Patreon - I’ve tried a few and they look great!
If there is any other help I can give you, I’d be happy to.
Maryann
Here is a photo of a large free-form forest pot I just made (17.5 inches wide, cone 10). It’s taken me a little while to learn how to make large pots, but the results are worth the effort:
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Great reply by @Forestcat. I would add to start with a couple of different color clays (I have 3 - buff, medium brown, and mocha) and make some small pots to test your different glazes to start. That will give you some examples to look at when you start making larger pots. For example, my chrome-tin pink glaze is more of a blah raspberry on the medium brown clay.