Northcote Pottery Practical Activity
ANIMAL HANGING WALL
PLAQUES
Materials:
PS2000 Terracotta or PS2260 Grogged Terracotta;
joining slip to match either clay
Equipment: Wooden modelling tools, rolling pin, rolling guide sticks
(5mm thick) or a harp (for cutting slabs), potato peeler
hole cutter, wire, string or leather
FormingTechniques: slab / modelling / joining /
paring and peeling
DecoratingTechniques: relief impressions, carving
Themes Extensions: Farmyard animals, tropical fish, extinct animals, birds, reptiles, dinosaurs,
butterflies, coral and sea anemones, bacteria, furry pets, mythological creatures (dragons, unicorns),
Australian mammals, African hooved animals, rodents & pests, story book creatures (eg. Alice in
Wonderland)
Variations: (A) Make a series of different animals and attach them to thin green bamboo garden
stakes to create a garden feature (B) Pierce a hole through an appropriate spot on your animal and
attach a battery operated clock mechanism (C) Add some more hanging holes at the bottom of your
series of animals and wire each animal to the one above to create a vertical screen made up of many
animals – ideal for indoors or outdoors.
Step one
Roll a clay slab (5mm thick) using a rolling pin
with guide sticks or cut slabs using a clay
cutting harp.
Step two
For a chicken, draw up and cut out some paper
templates like A, B, C, D & E.
(Or create your own shaped paper templates
for your own individual animal design.)
Step three
Texture one half of the slab making marks,
scratches, impressions which look a little like
feathers (or create similar textured marks
for your own type of animal design). From this
area the pieces B,C,D and E are cut using the
paper templates once the clay is leather hard.
A potato peeler can be used to pare down the
edges of the slabs so they taper off to a
thin edge.
Step four
Cut (piece A) from the plain, non-textured
part of the slab using the paper template.
Step five
Using the scratch ‘n’ slip method of joining, join the
smaller slab pieces onto the larger (A) base piece.
Join B (wing) onto A (body).Join C (neck) onto A (body).
Join D (wing) onto B (wing).Join E (wing) onto D (wing)
to build up a layered look for the chicken’s wings and neck.
A V-shaped lino carving tool can be used to carve any
additional textural detail on the piece once
you have put the animal sections together. It is also advisable
to cut out of the centre of each slab any excess clay (see
illustration) which could also make the final slab form too
thick in the built up areas.
Step six
Roll a small ball of clay for the chicken’s eye and join it on with slip to C.
Then add small balls under the beak to C and some hand modeled feet to A.
Use the scratch and slip joining method. Make sure that the feet
do not protrude over the edge of the body too far or they’ll break off
Step seven
Pierce two holes using a hole cutter through section A to
hang the chicken after firing with some string, leather or wire.
Step eight
Dry the whole piece very slowly on a piece of
compressed cement sheet. Fire once to 1100C
without any glaze. Use the same firing rate as
for a bisque firing.
NOTE: You can use this layering technique to make any other style of animal. Be sure that you do not
create too much thickness by layering no more than 4 layers (slabs) anywhere on the form because you
will encounter drying cracks. The drying rates of the sections differing thickness will vary and the clay
will shrink at variable speeds throughout the piece.
 Kerry Punton 2002
Northcote Pottery 85A Clyde Street, Thornbury 3071. Phone: 03 9484 4580 Fax: 03 9480 3075