This is Step 2 of my Making Wild Grass Dinner Sets for my good friend Art Harris. This step involves making the plates, creating the bowls will be in the next step.
My dinnerware sets are hand built, which means that I do not use the pottery wheel to make them. I like to roll out my clay manually using an old fashioned hickory rolling pin, making sure there are no air bubbles in the clay and that it has uniform thickness. The slab of clay is then draped over a mold with a wet strip of 100% cotton bedsheet in between. I generally use wooden or bamboo molds because they allow the moisture to escape underneath slowly which I find helps prevent warping. The cloth also helps with this and it is essential that it is 100% cotton to allow it to breathe.
After shaping it to fit the mold and smoothing down the edges I use the collected wild grass from step number one and press them into the plate. These are finished off with a scalloped edge design before allowing to dry. They will now dry for up to a week. it gets damp and moist in Vermont in the fall so the drying time gets extended. Slow drying is crucial to prevent cracking and warping in the kiln when fired.
See you soon for Step 3!

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