Many people associate this little salt shaker with the Minnesota potter Warren MacKenzie. He has made a lot of them. A friend of mine traveling in rural France saw them in a traditional potter’s showroom. Who knows. Warren did not come up with the design. As the story goes he was teaching a class when one of the students came in with a salt shaker and asked Warren if he would show them how to make one. Warren asked the student where that one had come from. The student replied that his teacher had made it to which Warren replied why don’t you have the teacher show you. The student replied that the teacher wouldn’t, that it e=was a secret. Warren then suggested that this was no teacher.
I was eating lunch with Warren and Nancy some years ago at their home in Stillwater where I first saw one of the salt shakers. As I was examining it Warren gave me some pointers on making one. I’ll pass the information along.

I start with a centered ball of about one pound of clay.

I open the clay leaving the clay in the middle a bit thicker than the rest of the bottom.

I thin open the bottom of the pot all the way to the wheel head.

I pull up a little bitty cylinder in the center of the pot.

I close the cylinder off forming a cone.

The a start pulling up the outside walls

See the cute little cone down in there?

I taper the walls in and close off the top.

With the top sealed off I shape the salt shaker into whatever shape I want. I like a slightly onion dome shape.

After the shaker is leather hard I put it in a chuck and trim the outside edge and trim out the inside of the cone. A needle tool works best for the inside. I then bore a hole in the center of the cone with a one eighth inch drill bit. That size works best according to MacKenzie. If it is smaller the salt takes too long to load. If it is larger the slat comes out too fast. In use the salt will only come out if the shaker is shaken up and down. If it is shaken side to side nothing comes out.
People always ask if they can put pepper in this pot. I tell them to use a small pepper mill.

A year ago I tried making a couple of large lidded oval bakers. They turned out well and were sold as soon as they came out of the kiln. (Why does Dave Ericson a;ways show up to help unload?) I decided to try a longer run of the last week. Here is a simplified step by step of their making.

I started by throwing a series of low wide cylinders and reshaping them into a trefoil type oval.

The rim is thrown thick and formed into a gallery to accept the lid.

After the body of the pot has set up a while but is still pliable I throw the bottom. I like throwing rather than rolling it because i get that nice spiral in the center.

The body of the pot is then placed on the bottom and “wiggled” around until I feel it start to stick. I then smooth down the edges with my finger inside and out and cut all the way around it with a wooden knife tool and then trim away the excess clay from the bottom with a fettling knife.

Using a triangular rib I scrape away excess clay from the base and undercut it a little. I like to leave the “deckle edges” where they occur.

With the oval baker still on the wheel I stick a couple of handles on and pull them in place.

Next I cover the bakers with light plastic and roll out a slab of clay a little bigger than the pot for each one and set them aside.

After the slab has had time to stiffen up some I use a hard rubber rib to press the slab into the rim of the baker carefully stretching it to give it an inverted dome shape.

After I have finished shaping the lid I trim around the edge of the baker with a needle tool and let the lids and bakers dry and stiffen together.

When the lid is stiff enough to handle but still pliable I turn it over and trim it along the line left in the clay from the rim of the baker using a needle tool on the outside and a fettling knife on the inside. I also smooth the rim of the lid with my fingers and a little water if needed.

With the lid trimmed and smoothed I pull a strap handle, bend it and attach it to the lid. I fit the lid to the baker by gently adjusting the shape of the baker to conform to the lid and by shaping the lid with a sureform. This is only going to work if the baker is still somewhat pliable. THe moisture content of the baker is critical and can be maintianed by wetting the baker and keeping it covered until the lid is ready.

These six bakers were made and put together over a three day period.

One of my standard production items is an oval platter made with a rolled out slab on a plaster hump mold. I have made them for a lot of years but only this last year started making them with textured slabs like this.

I have never gotten around to getting a proper slab roller. I still roll them out by hand with out any sort of gage to get the thickness consistent. I like that aspect of them.

The mold is one I made years ago while still a student. I borrowed a wooden bowl and poured plaster into it to get this negative of the shape I want to make the piece. The slab is laid on the mold and the gross clay is trimmed away with a needle tool. After patting the clay a little I trim the clay to fit the mold and pat it a bit more. The clay sets up for a day or so and I remove it from the mold and round the rim with a rib tool.

The roulette used here was made by winding a piece of cord around a cylinder of soft clay.

This roulette was impressed with the thin edge of a wooden rib.

This slab was textured with a wooden roller that has cord glued to its surface.

Here I used a narrow wooden roller with fine cord glued to it.

I’m just two weeks away from the last day I will be throwing pottery this year. By then I’ll have enough ware to fire two to three times. My holiday sale days are November 27, 28 and December 5 then its off to Flagstaff with Sterling Van Wagenen to talk about a possible Grand Canyon film. When I return to Utah I’ll be scheduled for some hernia repair surgery that will put me out of commission for the rest of the year. I’ll likely start throwing again as soon as my doc says OK. Lee and I are gunning for a April or May Grand Canyon river trip that will be just the two of us. I’ll need to have a lot of inventory stacked up so I can take the time off and still be ready for my Memorial Day sale.
Here are some of the things I have cranked out the past week.

I have been making some roulettes out of bisqued clay and impressing them into bowls. I am also using the rope and cord rollers I made a while back.Here are some examples of what I have so far including close-ups of detail.

From time to time I make a few of these large chargers with slogans on the rim.

I am not really a tool and die man. I build kilns and make tools out of necessity. I know some potters who make pots only so that they can make tools and build kilns. I am the other way around.
So anyway I decided to make some new roller type tools for putting pattern on pots. From left to right here are:
A roller from Capital Ceramics in Salt Lake. Next are two rollers used to press down seams in wall paper. One is new. The other on is twenty years or more older. I can’t find ones like that any more. I suspect the new ones are all plastic. Then there is Shoe Goo and various strings and cords from the local hardware store.

I start by rolling the glue onto the roller like I would if I were inking a brayer for print making.

When the glue is evenly distributed I wind the cord onto the roller and hold it until it sticks.

Nice tool, eh?

Here is the same idea with carpenter’s string.

Mugs showing string roller, cord roller and bisque stamp impressions

Here is the same thing on a small vase.


Three slab built platters with rope/string patterns and details of the same. Fun with clay.

I was putting handles on mugs while listening to NPR’s coverage of the inaguration. As the new president finished his speech I shifted gears and began making 15 lb platters. I had an idea I wanted to act on. I wanted to do something to commemorate his words and my feelings on this day.

When I throw wide platters I like to place a ball of clay in the bottom after opening it to the desired width. I pound the clay while turning it to make sure it is stuck there. Then I smooth it into place with water and make it part of the bottom. This insures that the bottom is compressed and eliminates the possibility of “S” cracks in the bottom.
I pull the platter to the desired hight and leave a fairly thick rim from which to form an outer flange.

The flange is formed by pulling the clay out rather than laying the clay down. Phil Rogers in his exellent book “Throwing Pots” illustrates and explains it like this.


After the platter has set up a while but not too much I use rubber stamps to impress words into the flange. I made six of these today expressing things I felt about the inaguration.

Listening to: Windward Passage by Neil Young and the Ducks

When I was learning how to build pottery on the wheel a few decades back there was a really large guy in the studio who made big pots. He always made them from one big lump of clay and was a gas to watch. He made the most amazing shapes with his mouth while he was throwing. My cousin Scott (who got me into ceramics) remarked that he must be one heck of a kisser. One time a cute little girl named Nora asked him to throw her a bathtub. He said he would if she would use it to bathe in the studio. Not having his physical endowment I didn’t try stuff like that. Then came along Shirley Ray, this relatively small and skinny girl, who made pots big enough to hide in using some Korean methods.
I have not made a lot of big pot because I have to stick with what I can move through my inventory. I suppose that may sound mercenary but it is a fact of life for one who makes his living with clay. If I am selling pots I get to make more. I love making pots a lot. It is a real kick. Nothing turns me off in terms of wanting to get muddy as much as looking at a full showroom. I now have a couple of interior designer clients who want big stuff so I dusted off Shirley’s methods and am using them with my middle aged arthritic hands to make, what are for me, big pots. So with the help of ibuprofen and some cheater moves I am making big bowls this week. Too bad Nora isn’t around.

I am starting with a fairly hefty 30 lb platter thrown with a slightly concave rim. I let it sit in a breeze free studio or with the electric wheel turning slowly to prevent uneven drying.

When the platter is leather hard but not too dry I score the rim with a serrated rib and wet it down pretty well.

I use an old Brent extruder to make a 1.5″ coil. Ten lbs of clay makes a coil that will fit this 20″ platter.

I lay the coil down on the scored and dampened rim and make a lap joint.

If the rim has been dampened enough I can knit the outside edge as shown above. The inside is no problem as it is still plastic clay. The knitting is done with a wiping not pinching motion using a dry digit. (Usually my thumb.)
Note: If you let the bowl dry too much this knitting is harder to do and you run the risk of a dry joint that will crack somewhere between now and the final firing.

When I am satisfied that the knitting is complete I wet down the coil and carefully throw it to the desired hight. At this point the newly thrown section is allowed to dry to the same leather hard state as the platter was. If I am in a hurry I’ll use a weed burner to push things along. This method is OK but must be done carefully so as not to over dry the bowl, and for hecksake don’t burn down the shop.

When the new rim is stiff enough (but not too dry) I add another coil like the last one. and throw it to the desired hight and thickness. If the rim is too thin a 1/2″ coil can be added after the required drying has been allowed.

I like to texture some of these especially if I am thinkig of applying a glaze that is sensitive to thick and thin variations. The stamps are bisqued clay. The bread knife is from a flea market in Missouri where my mother lives. I have a hard time passing up a flea market, thrift store or kitchen shop. They have so many good potter’s tools.

Listening this morning to the Rick n’Roll Show on Gulch Radio this morning.

Rick Gate has a new leica. He brought it by recently and shot a bunch of files of me making pots. I’ll share a few here.

Joe the Potter happy at his kraft. Warming up here for the pottery olympics to be held in Tibet later this year.

Local boy makes good with big balls of mud.

The following series detail the making of a tall 10 lb cylinder from tow 5 lb cylinders.

The phone rings a lot at my shop.

Lining up the cylinders with breath tightly held in check.

Carefully joining the two parts.

Cutting the upper half away from the bat with a fettling knife.

After the bat is removed extra clay can be trimmed away. If you hold your mouth just right this will work at home kids.

A couple of pulls will make the joining of the two halves work better visually.

The joint is now the weakest part of the pot so I pull out the “cheater” to stiffen it up and the #&*$! phone rings again.

Be careful Daddy be careful!

A row of finished pots.

For the past couple of weeks I have been making pots larger that my usual fare. I have a request from a couple of designer friends for large pieces for a new outlet they are opening in Park City. It is fun to work on things I usually am not able to make for lack of market.

These oval dishes are 16″ wide.

I tried a few of them with lids.

I made two of these bowls. They are 16″ in diameter.

14′ tubular vases

These vases are between 22 and 24 inches tall.

Here are some of them finished.

Some people can throw big vases all in one pull. I have to make smaller parts and them join them together and finish them. Here is a 15 lb bowl that will form the base for a larger vase.

The top part is thrown from 10 lbs of clay.

The rims of both parts are scored with a serrated rib. The rim of the top is concave like this so that it will fit around the rim of the lower part.

The second bowl form is inverted and carefully placed on the first like this.

The joint is then sealed and the pot is carefully thrown in such a way as to make it one continuous pot. Of course timing is pretty important here. If the pot is rushed it will collapse. If you wait too long to join the parts the joint will crack. After a few tries you get it figured out.

I worked at these all day today and got two finished. With a larger vase (50 lbs) I may only get one done all day.

After the vase has set up over night I usually attach some handles of something like that.

I got an email from a pottery student asking me about how I make mug handles. What follows is some instruction with images I took of myself. Unfortunately, shooting my own demo means I can only have one hand in the photo so you will have to imagine the other one.

I start with a piece of well kneaded clay that looks like this.

From this piece of clay I will pull a long handle. Note the ridge down the middle. The handle tapers from the ridge in the middle to each outside edge. I use my right hand (not shown) to pull. I alternate between running my thumb down the right and left sides of the handle to accomplish this effect. I keep pulling until I have attained the thickness (or thiness) that desire. Finding what works for you will take some time and practice.

After getting the long handle right I pinch off short handle stubs and lay them out. These stubbs are alter attached to the mug and pulled more so they don’t have to be long. The way these are pulled they taper slightly from top to bottom. Make note of this.

Using a cerrated rib or some such tool I score the clay where I want to attach the handle to the mug. Next the scored clay is dampened with thin slip or water.

I then pick up the handle stub and dampen the bottom (or thinner end) and press it into the scored and dampened clay with a wiggling motin until it feels attached. You will feel it attaching and becoming one piece of clay.

Gripping the handle stub near its attachment to the mug I squeeze and press it into the mug making the attachment more sure. This motion should cause the handle to thicken a little toward that attachment as you see here.

After dipping my free hand in water for lubrication I start pulling the handle with a FEW quick strokes that begin very near the attachment. I am looking for a handle that thickens slightly at the point of attachment and taper away from there. I don’t want the handle too thick or thin. Again, practice will tell what that looks and feels like.

As I return the mug to a vertical position I dampen the side of the mug where I expect to attach the bottom of the handle and make that attachment.

The excess tail of the handle is cut away with a needle tool and the handle is smoothed in place.

Here are a couple of finished mugs with handles. It takes a while to hit the proportions right. Be aware of how this mug will fit in the hand. It is easy to get too much handle. Decide if you wanat a one, two or three finger handle. It is better to err on the small side, I think.

Practice a lot before you start keeping mugs for firing. There are already enough bad mugs in the world. It is like my early teacher Andy Watson used to say: “The good Lord spent four billion years getting that clay to this point, don’t do something in the next five minutes that will mess that up.”
A great idea for practicing is to take a glass or plastic cylinder and attach handles to it over and over again until it comes easily.

Today’s Music: “Lay it Down” Cowboy Junkies

Today’s Quote: “Nothing in the world is more yielding and gentle than water. Yet it has
no equal for conquering the resistant and tough. The flexible can overcome the
unbending; the soft can overcome the hard.” - Lao Tse