Throwing Pottery with Silver Mixed in — THE RESULTS!

Video Description

Not everything goes as planned when testing new clay and glazes or in this instance, sterling silver, which I’ve wedged into my clay body and thrown a simple pot from. For the past few months, I’ve been testing numerous metals: bronze, hammer scale, crushed rusted fish-hooks and various other things. I’d heard on the web that silver isn’t particularly reactive but sometimes hearing something isn’t enough, I had to test it myself, right? So, that’s what this short video is about, the making of a simple curved bowl that contains a sprinkling of silver filings. Although the results aren’t particular interesting, doing the test alone is worth it as a means of adding to my material knowledge. I really thought due to silvers low melting point that it would create rather dramatic rivulets of metal that streamed down the side of the vessel, but it seems like they either stay as little black dots, if they don’t puncture the glaze, and if they do reach the surface, they create these brown pinholes surrounded by a ring of brown or yellow, (as seen at the end of the video). Alas, it’s not as exciting as I imagined but I can cross it off my list at least. Lastly, a huge thanks to @alexpoleironwork for sending me all of these metals to test. #pottery #experiment #silver #metalwork #ceramics #handmade #clay