Making a fluted garden urn

Fluting is created with a clay slip which is simply clay and water mixed together to form a mud which can be sculpted for textural effects.

This garden urn is made of three parts, each created on the wheel

and assembled while they are firm yet still moist.

Clay slip is applied by sticking my fingers into that bowl of clay slip (mud)

in the foreground there and smearing the slip all around the urn. And, yes, this really is a lot of fun!

For this wide fluted pattern I push the slip up and down with a rib tool. Pushing

up leaves the curved line of the rib impressed in the slip. Then pulling it down blends the slip into the body of the urn.

I have learned to enjoy the randomness of these modern flutes.

The clay slip and the three original parts of the urn must dry slowly and at the same rate to avoid cracking.

The random flutes and abstract decoration compliment each other.

Mardi Gras Garden Urn 18H $500