Experimenting with Darts to Create Dynamic Forms in Clay

A cylindrical form is one of the most common clay forms for any potter to make… and sometimes you may just want to spruce it up to make it more exciting or expressive. This video shows some demonstrations of experimenting with darts to create dynamic altered forms in clay. I am using slab cylinders in this video, but the process works well with any thin clay- especially wheel thrown forms. Thicker forms like pinch or coil may be harder to execute the darting. My ceramics II students have a textured slab set project for which this technique really lends itself. As mentioned during the video, here is a link to a document I use with my students with some guidelines to what various darts may look like.

The cylinders in the video aren’t finished cylinders, as I am just trying to quickly show variations of darts.

I show four basic darts, and each is shown on the accompanying PDF document. One of the tips I always tell people is to always bevel the edges of the darts before you slip and score the edges together. Bevels will allow you to press together the two pieces of clay more easily as well than if they were blunt straight cuts.

Check out my Amazon Influencer Store where I have recommendations for some of my favorite tools and products many of which I use in my videos- which are available on Amazon.

For the great tools I used in the video (including the MKM rollers and the wooden Kemper tools) check out this link to a live Googledoc I continually update with lots of my favorite tools on Amazon using my associate links! (also some non-amazon suggestions on here!)


I’ll have other videos on darting specific forms if you would like to check them out:

Slab Cup with a Darted Square Base:

Darted Slab Pitcher:

Conical Cups with Darted Bottom:

In this video, I am using standard 153, a nice midrange firing stoneware.

I am a public high school ceramics teacher at William Mason High School in Mason, Ohio. (Mason is currently the largest high school in Ohio!) As a potter, I have been working in clay for over 30 years, and I have been teaching for over 28 years, the past 20 have been specifically teaching high school ceramics. I love what I do! I have my own studio in my home basement, where I work on my personal pottery for my Etsy site;

I started my Youtube channel a few years ago, to make videos to help my students if they are absent and miss a demo, or if they would like to explore more advanced techniques independently. I have been amazed to reach such a wider audience than my own students!

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